Adding a deep sand bed questions

[CoralClasher]

I'm running a 120 gallon fat boy for about 6 years now. I removed the shallow sand bed three years ago because of Dinos and not knowing how to control them. I added a deep sand bed refugium 8 months ago and is looking great. I was just given three leopard wrasses and I guess they need sand so I'm going to add a 4 inch Oolite sand bed.

Question 1 do I need to drain the tank and bleach the bottom before the sand goes in?

Question 2 how much Oolite sand is needed for a 4 inch bed?

Question 3 if I don't use bleach should I still QT all the fishes for awhile?

 

[Flippers4pups]

Oolite is a tuff sand in any tank that has a great deal of flow. It's very well known to turn into a sand storm.

I would consider a sand like Fuji pink or special grade a better choice.

Rinse any sand well and let drain till most of the water is out. No need to drain the tank. Take a piece of pvc pipe, around 1" and dump the sand into the pipe to the bottom. It will cloud the water for a little while, but clear by the next day.

 

[jordan9095]

if you want to keep the bare bottom you can but a small container of sand and they will sleep in there

 

[CoralClasher]

if you want to keep the bare bottom you can but a small container of sand and they will sleep in there

I don't really like the bare bottom look. When I pulled the shallow sand bed I said to myself if I ever replace the sand try a deep sand bed. Now that I have a deep sand bed in the refugium really makes me want the same in DT.

 

[fish farmer]

It seems you have all the goodness of natural filtration in your refuge/remote DSB.

I would keep it that way.

Do you get detritus build up on your bare bottom now? You main tank looks clean and nice. As posted above keeping oolitic sand from blowing around can be an issue as well as siphoning out detritus.

How deep was your shallow sand bed before and was it fine grained and did you do any type of maintenance like stirring, siphoning etc?

 

[CoralClasher]

It seems you have all the goodness of natural filtration in your refuge/remote DSB.

I would keep it that way.

Do you get detritus build up on your bare bottom now? You main tank looks clean and nice. As posted above keeping oolitic sand from blowing around can be an issue as well as siphoning out detritus.

How deep was your shallow sand bed before and was it fine grained and did you do any type of maintenance like stirring, siphoning etc?

Yes I get a lot of detritus in DT and it sill looks like sand blowing around. The sand was 2 inches can't remember for sure but I think it was Oolite. It looked great till I started cleaning the sand bed then it just got worse and I was stirring it up daily and that got old fast. I did have sand sifting stars and fish that eat the life out of the sand. I won't make that mistake again. I siphoned the detritus yesterday and this picture is now.

 

[CoralClasher]

Detritus removal was the main reason for getting rid of the sand. It doesn't matter what I do detritus always wins. Now I want the sand bed to take care of the detritus!!

 

[CoralClasher]

Looks like most of the life in the refugium dsb is in the top inch, maybe a two inch bed would work fine I don't know!

 

[jordan9095]

If you want sand, I would go with tropic eden and add it slowly over the course of a few weeks using the method described above. Make sure to wash it good. My wrasse likes 3"+