FOWLR....what to do for substrate

[nivram]

My father-in law was given a 200+ gal setup. I have yet to see it. But sounds like it has a wet/dry or sump for filtration. He wants to keep fish only. He asked me about buying play sand for the tank thinking that CC or agranite would get real expensive. I know BB is an option but i don't think he cares for the look of it.

What are the guys with large FOWLR doing for sand? Is there a reef safe sand that people are using from Home Depot or Lowes? I've heard of some people using starboard for a BB tank. I just want to give him his options.

Maybe I should just convince him to give the tank to me

 

[illal]

dont waste your time with that stuff from home depot youll be kicking your self in the *** when u realize all the algea problems that come along with it! if u go to eco-reef (atlantic/intercoastal) they sell some pretty good stuff at an excellent price (under $20 per 40lbs or at least thats what it was when i got it about a year ago) plus if your a member of fmas itll be even cheaper
btw i just noticed u mentioned CC which shouldnt even be an option!

 

[loyalrogue]

I'm probably going to get flamed by all the substrate purists here like AL, but here's my own small experience like it or not.

My big tank originally came with a mix of large FW gravel (it was a FW tank at one time), CC, play sand and aragonite reef sand.
I added some bags of fine white dry sand on top to give it a nice "clean" appearance when I setup it back up after to move.

For the first couple of years it never had any unusual algae problems, and the sand never "sifted" to the bottom exposing the gravel and CC like everyone said it would.
The only time I ever saw the gravel was when the big Gobies would dig down more than 2" in the same spot.
Even then the gravel always got covered back up again with the regular flow from the powerheads and as they moved on to work other parts of the tank.

A few months ago the wife decided it was time to rearrange the living room so the big tank got moved 10' away to a different wall.
Of course this was the same situation as moving it across town... complete and total breakdown and removal of all water, sand, rock, fish corals, etc.
So I took the opportunity to rinse all the builtup detrius, and run the substrate thru a colander to remove everything larger than the CC.
Then I added a few more bags of fresh CC on the bottom layer, and topped it all off with the newly sifted sand mixture and several more new bags of pink reef aragonite and fine white reef sand.

In my recent researching here on remote DSBs I stumbled across a lot of people who have been using plain old silica sand from Home Depot and have had no problems.
I've also read up from several people's successful experiences with using sand from the beach which is also just plain silica sand like the kind found at HD and Lowes' too.
As a matter of fact, last night I bought several buckets and bags of playsand at HD and will be setting up a few remote DSBs in the next week or two to give it a try.

Of course, I'm no chemistry or biology expert (or really even close to being an expert on anything in this hobby) so take my experience and opinions for what they're worth... not much.

 

[illal]

IMO u shouldnt cut corners and do thing right the first time (i learned this the hard way ) You can use playsand but it won't have the benefits of calcium based sands. most who used play sand have had major algea issues while some have had none... at the great price eco reef has it at IMO its not worth it to take the "short cut" DO IT RIGHT, DO IT ONCE
btw im no chemist either

 

[carlosngloria]

I put 6 20lb bag in my 210 and it was fine. 20 bucks a bag. I would def. go with reef sand.

 

[Ding2daDong]

The tank with be a fish only so I would just use the play sand or the dry sand from ecoreef. Honestly if you have an ich outbreak and use copper it will kill anything in the sand so it will not matter.

hth

-Matthew

 

[illal]

would u really use copper in your display? :eek2:

 

[nivram]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=12207674#post12207674 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by illal
would u really use copper in your display? :eek2:

I wouldn't. He has a koi pond in the back yard and has an extra UV sterilzer. I told him it might not be a bad idea to set it up if it's large enough.

I'll check out eco reef. I was trying to avoid the whole algae issue some have experienced with silica based sand. Even if he had to dump $100 into sand. Its still not bad for the setup he's getting for free.

Thanks for the responses. And yes I am a FMAS member. I am looking forward to the next meeting.

Thanks again.
Marvin

 

[Ding2daDong]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=12207674#post12207674 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by illal
would u really use copper in your display? :eek2:

In a "fish only" system yes.

-Matthew