deep sand beds

[dakotaschley]

I currently have a 5 inch sand bed in my display tank but the problem i am having is water flow, i have 4 -1200 maxi jets along with a hydroflow 880, a fission power skimmer and a fivion fx5 pump, my problem is sand is building up to much in certain areas and not enough in others, can someone please help me out with this?

 

[dakotaschley]

Its a 210 gallon tank

 

[SuperNerd]

Yes, that would be one of the problems using fine grain sand.

 

[jglackin]

I have a 6" DSB in my tank. I have no sand problems from flow. Not yet. I have 4 Tunze 6055s, A Reeflo Snapper, and a Koralia 4. I am going to be adding either a wave box or a 6101. I may add a couple more 6055s. Maybe one I add all that, I may have sand problems, but, since I am mixed reef,I am not driving as much flow down around my sand bed as I would if I was all SPS. That's why I am thinking about using the wave box. Something that will move water but without a lot of flow.

 

[gastone]

I've done a DSB for years using southdown. I've always liked the look, but since upgrading my flow I'm constantly fighting substrate drifts and sand in the water column. I keep a 100g stock tank for my sump with about 400# of sand in there (give or take), so I don't need the DSB in my display for denitrification. I'll be pulling it shortly and replacing it with a SSB of this: http://www.drsfostersmith.com/product/prod_display.cfm?c=3578+10741+7326&pcatid=7326

My thinking is that the larger particulate size won't get blown around as much. If swapping out substrate isn't an option, you can always redirect your flow. Are your maxijets modded?

Garrett.

 

[zeblisik]

I wonder if you could use a fine particle sized substrate for the lower portion (5" or so) and then a larger particle sized substrate for the upper 1" and thus get the best of both worlds? (so to speak)