Is this ok for the tank-new sand

perculus

This tank has been running for 6 months. It was a barebottom but I wanted it to be pretty so ahead I went and put sand. Not shure if I am going to regret my decision yet. Its my fisrt salt tank with substrate.
The tank is 50gal and has about 50pounds of live rock that Ive had for 7years from another tank. An eheim canister and a big hangon for filtration. Paramaters are perfect and stable for a long time.
I put 40pounds of ocean direct caribbean live sand with argonite and oolite.( It seemed fancy)
The tank took a few hours to clear up and I expect for it to be crystal in a few more hours.

Did I put enough,properly...rock placement???? etc.........

What do you guys think?

Sorry still a bit cloudy. Tried to dust off the rocks as best I could, should have taken them out..darn
Watchman goby is very happy with the sand, Coral beauty is freaked out and scared of the bottom, enginear goby is indeferent, cant find gudgeon goby. Hermits are loving it and the shrimps are curious.
I shure looks pretty I think.

princesuhaib

is that the watchman goby? on the right side stickin out his head! thats sweet if so! :)

It looks good It will take a bit of time for the water to clear. How many inches is there of sand ?

perculus

Well it finaly cleared up.
The sand is between 1 and 2 and a half inches depending on the area.
Should it be even? It looks nice with the valleys and mountains...

Fusion MK

It will become even with gravity...

you could install some plastic terraces under the sand to go hold the sand up like that if you wanted too...

perculus

I was starting to get worried about my sally lightfoot crab, he is usually out. Found him after an hour of digging around...I BURIED HIM!!!!! OMG I am awful.. Poor little guy is all stuned and really slow I hope he makes it.
Also lost a hermit and cannot locate a blue gudgeon. I took the sand away from the rock thinking they were traped. Hope they find a way out.
Already hating the sand....but so pretty...aghhh :)

Pasfur

I am afraid that long term you made a bad decision. It is the depth of the sand that will cause your problems. For the proper bacteria to grow to allow for denitrification, you need between 4'' and 6'' of sand. On the flip side, you can keep the sand bed at less than 1'', but will not achieve natural nitrate reduction from the sand bed. Anything between 1'' and 4'' tends to become a nutrient trap over the long haul, which leads to excess phosphates and difficultly controlling calcium and alkalinity levels.

Cody

That is just what I was going to say. You either have too much sand, or too little sand. I see about 2.5", and that would not be good for the reasons Pasfur explained above.

perculus

damn

What do I do? Do I syphon some out to make only one inch or take it all out?
The stuff was pretty expensive can I use it in fresh if I clean it out good?
The lfs guys said it was just enough sand , Im so pissed.

Kellsindell

Sorry to hear about the lfs' bad info. They will do what it takes to make a sell. I'm going to echo what Pasfur and Cody said. You can siphon out sand to make it less or put a bag into it on the far side, away from the LR and cut a hole into the bag and allow water to pass through it. Then release the sand slowly into the water. That should keep it from causing another sand storm (if you chose that route).

whitedevil

actually with that goby doing what he does in there, your sand should be fine, as long as it can get stirred and moved a bit, the gas pockets disappear or disappear to a safe level.

I have between 1-3" of sand in spots, its built up in spots and 2" of flourite, as long as the kuhlis and MTS's do their jobs I wont have to be as diligient on the sand stirring.