DSB...lets talk about them

[runningrandy04]

All the fish stores I've been to have shallow beds, even in their refugiums, so there isn't an abundance of life in them. Although, I did find out from d french that there is a club here in st louis. Also found out the he lives like 20 min from me which is pretty cool. Just gotta swing by one of the stores in st louis to join the club. Thanks for the help!

 

[fatman]

Thanks biff and fatman. My plan is actually to make an 75 gal sump with a 40 gal refugium in it. I want there to a 6-8 in bed, 60% sugar sand, 40% aragolive reef sand. I don't know what I'm gonna do about stirrers because I worried about them accidentally uprooting the algae causing me to disturb the bed trying to set it back. Another question. what stirrers just eat the detrius and not the bugs in the sandbed since the bugs do most of the stirring.

:bounce:I would recommend that you use all fine sand and no aragolive, but instead a good live sand such as GARF Grunge or live sand from Tampa Bay Live Rock. GARF grunge is more expensive but is a better innoculant in the way of critters that will stir your sand. Only a four or five pounds will give an excellent kick start to the deep sand beds bio life and critter life. Tampa Bays would be cheaper and would provide the same bio life but much less diverse critter life. Were talking two dollars versus five dollars per pound plus shipping. Aragolive is bacterial life but no critter life at all. Basically Aragolive is precycled sand that they claim to enrich. Both GARF Grunge and Tampa Bay Live Sand are larger than 1.00 mm particles so it will stay on the surface of your fine sand and will provide a better environment for Pods than fine sand. The GARF Grunge is mainly broken particles of live rock and sand, the larger particles are covered with coraline algae. The Tampa Bay live sand is basically Florida crushed coral live sand.:^:
http://www.tampabaysaltwater.com
http://www.garf.org/

 

[salt newbie01]

Great info everyone - This is what I was talking about!!! I really appreciate all of the info everyone has contributed to this thread. Great info without all the b*ching!! Any time I have tried to get a thead like this going on RC it turns into an argument - Hard to get good info for all the arguing.

So for my 220 predator tank I should get approx 6 inches or more of a sand bed. And it is better to get a slightly diff mix of sand size - some really fine stuff and then some that is more like the aragolive size. Is that right? I will probably try to do this in the display and in the fuge underneath - I figure the more the better with a predator tank. Oh and a skimmer the size of a small car!!

Thanks again everyone - and you too fatman - for keeping it simple for us simpletons!! :)

 

[d.french]

our club officers live in granite city also if you would want to stop by one of there places, or get on reef central and create your profile and start posting there for free.

 

[d.french]

20 bucks a year and you will get a card with your name on it and most lfs around st. louis area give 5 to 10 percent discounts for being slash member and thereefstop.com is run by a guy in our club and gives 10 percent discount to slash members and 5 percent for reef central members. His name on rc is mark96 i think.

 

[Rcpilot]

Great info without all the b*ching!! Any time I have tried to get a thead like this going on RC it turns into an argument - Hard to get good info for all the arguing.

Thats why RC sucks donkey nuts. I HATE RC. NEVER post there. I refuse to even LOOK at their website. They get paid when you click pages on the site. Advertisers pay money to advertise on RC because of all the people who visit daily. Great exposure for an advertiser. Every time somebody clicks a banner add or a page, RC gets paid by the advertiser.

RC SUCKS!! They're just corporate. In it for the money, but thats as far as their interest in reefing goes. Corporate hacks.

Living Reefs is my favorite site. I post a one other site and on my local club site, but thats all. Living Reefs has the best people. They make fun of you when you deserve it. They support you when disaster strikes, and they laugh and slap you on the back when things go good for you. Best people I've run into. :Cheers:

 

[d.french]

rc does suck they ban you for anything no one every helps out with info or they just want to sell and buy stuff. Atleast here you get alot of help without all the stuck up know it alls griping at you since you don't have all the high end equipment. i'm trying to hook runningrandy up with some local reefers and reef club so he can get good discounts at lfs and cheap coral from other members and of course free corals from me. I like giving freebies to the new guys in hobby.

 

[fatman]

Any large substrate you add to your sand bed will just come to the surface over time. That is both good and bad. Good as it provides a preferred size for pod growth areas, if they are not preyed upon. Bad in that it provides a coarser surface which catches detritus in its concavities keeping it from staying in motion within the water and therefore possibly being removed by your skimmer. It does keep your fine sand in place when using strong circulation velocities is why I include some sand in the 1.00 mm range plus some Grunge as a thin top coating on my deep sand beds.

 

[runningrandy04]

so...how would 90% oolic sand and 10% garf to inoculate the sandbed be?

 

[fatman]

so...how would 90% oolic sand and 10% garf to inoculate the sandbed be?

:bounce:That would be an excellant choice.