Mixing substrate types....

[incept]

Sooo, I'm in the process of starting my first salt tank. I currently have a 25 gallon up and running for the past few weeks with about 10 lbs live rock in it. I have added about another 40-50lbs dead rock to become live. I also put about 25 lbs of aragonite in the bottom and some other larger pieces of substrate that I don't know the name of. The lfs had it and I picked a small bag up to just sprinkle around to add some texture and variety to the bottom. While this tank is running and cycling I have picked up a 90gallon which everything will be transplanted to. This will be my main setup. It has a 25 gallon sump and so on. When I purchased this 90 the fellow had about 50 lbs of pretty fine sand in a 5 gallon bucket he had been using in the tank. My question now is this,

What are the industry thoughts on mixing substrates like this? Is it suitable to use the sand and my aragonite together? I'd like to have the look which would be created by using a variety of substrate if acceptable. It would really give it an interesting look. Thanks!!

 

[Zero Nitrates]

I am not sure about the long term effects, but I do know someone who has mixed sand in his tank and everything is fine.

 

[Palting]

You can mix substrates, but expect the finer grains to slowly migrate thought the spaces, and that you will end up wih the finer grain in the bottom and the larger grain on top.

As to the fine grain sand in 5 gallon buckets from the 90 gallon fellow, I wouldn't recommend using it for several reasons. First, if it is sugar fine sand, that is not good sand for a reef tank. You may eventually want to go with SPS coral, and these require high flow. That sugar fine sand will get blown all over the place, and you may have to compromise your flow just to accommodate the sand. Second, you never know what is in "used" live sand. There could be a lot of phosphates and sulfides and dead critters and detritus, especially if the sand had been in his tank for quite a while. Too much of a pain, IMO, to get the sand clean enough to re-use. I would just do things right from the beginning and not use this sand.

 

[mike007]

I think that is a great idea. It will give you a good look.

 

[Reefing Madness]

I think that is a great idea. It will give you a good look.

Agreed:bigsmile:

 

[kenand]

Sooo, I'm in the process of starting my first salt tank. I currently have a 25 gallon up and running for the past few weeks with about 10 lbs live rock in it. I have added about another 40-50lbs dead rock to become live. I also put about 25 lbs of aragonite in the bottom and some other larger pieces of substrate that I don't know the name of. The lfs had it and I picked a small bag up to just sprinkle around to add some texture and variety to the bottom. While this tank is running and cycling I have picked up a 90gallon which everything will be transplanted to. This will be my main setup. It has a 25 gallon sump and so on. When I purchased this 90 the fellow had about 50 lbs of pretty fine sand in a 5 gallon bucket he had been using in the tank. My question now is this,

What are the industry thoughts on mixing substrates like this? Is it suitable to use the sand and my aragonite together? I'd like to have the look which would be created by using a variety of substrate if acceptable. It would really give it an interesting look. Thanks!!

Did you end up mixing different types of sand?