aragalive before LR

[ssirishpride]

opinions please. I want to add my substrates first so they have sufficient time to settle out. Anybody have opinions either way, sand before rock?

[sephroth_r1]

Add the LR first, then the sand. It allows the rock to have a stable surface to stand on. The water will cloud even when you add the LR and are moving the sand around. Its better to do the LR first, why not deal with cloudy water once?

 

Add LR

Add Sand

Add water

Let sit and the filter do its job

Enjoy!

[Sea Slug]

Agreed ! You need a stable surface for your aquascape , also when you add your live sand use a styrofoam cup . Fill cup with sand ( about 3/4 full ) and SLOWLY sink it into the tank with your hand over the top of the cup , thus letting water into the cup very slowly . When you get to the bottom of the tank dump out sand again slowly . You will still get cloudy water , but not for nearly as long of time . HTH

[reefone]

i added my salt water first let it get to temp then went and got the ls and the lr.put the ls in first then the lr.when i put the lr in i just made sure to twist and turn it until it hit the bottom.

[Rift-Reef]

After you have you sand and rock in the tank you can place a bowl in the area of the tank you will be pouring water into. This will dissapate the water entering the tank so that it doesn't disturb your sand so much. You just have to make sure to pour the water in directly over the bowl.

[chrisoppie]

I used my Maxi Jet 600 to suck the water out of a rubbermade tote full of water. House attached to the outflow and placed the hose directly down on the LR almost stopping the flow. 1.5 days, clear as a bell.

As long as you don’t play "Fire man with a hose" this worked for me. LS is the sugar powder stuff.

Of course I had to put the tote on a ladder, pump did not have enough oomph to raise the water 5' from floor to top of tank.

 

Large water changes, I will do the same way.

 

Worked for me filling my 30 gallon, HTH

[ssirishpride]

Great ideas. Water is in and comming to temp. plumming is done and Sealife will get my LR order Monday. I figure on using some filter bags of floss to capture most of the particulate matter from the sand storm. LR will go in first followed quickly by slooowly pouring my substrate.

[sephroth_r1]

Good choice!

[paneubert]

A lot of people will tell you not to let the rock touch the glass bottom......so my vote is to actually put the sand in first, then rock a few days later. Push it in to the sand obviously, but do not push it all the way to the glass. That way you dont risk cracking the bottom glass in the future.

[rev138]

I have rock in my second tank right now, but no sand. I had an idea to add it without much mess, what do you guys think?

 

My plan is to take the plastic tube off of my gravel vac and funnel the sand down it, so I can direct exactly where it goes, and minimize the amount of clouding.

[Rift-Reef]

A lot of people will tell you not to let the rock touch the glass bottom......so my vote is to actually put the sand in first, then rock a few days later. Push it in to the sand obviously, but do not push it all the way to the glass. That way you dont risk cracking the bottom glass in the future.

 

 

An easy way to fix this is to put a layer of eggcrate directly on the glass bottom before adding rock and then sand. This method worked great for me.

[lgreen]

I put the sand in first. Then just push the rock into the sand a bit. You get the same effect as putting the rock in first. I also try to keep the least amount of rock touching the sand as possible to allow for the most circulation possible on the surface of the sand bed.

[ssirishpride]

Does using eggcrate add to the likelyhood of dead spots or nitrate build-up in certain areas?

[rev138]

I would guess so, since it creates little 1/2" cubicles of isolated sand that nothing can stir up.

 

I used plastic mesh hardware cloth.

[lgreen]

You don't even need eggcrate.

 

Simply dump in the sand, push down the rock.

 

[ssirishpride]

Right on!

[Balmarog]

Why shouldn't the rock touch the glass?

[jldesign]

added my alive bagged sand stuff days before my rock went in (new biocube 14). you'll be re-arranging rock for days anyway just shimmy and push it into the sandbed until it stops moving down. common sense is to make sure everything is solid anyway as your build up. by shimmyin' it around as you go. just me though.