How many pounds of crushed coral Sand do I need for my 40 gallon breeder tank?

[miogpsrocks]

How many pounds of crushed coral Sand do I need for my 40 gallon breeder tank?

The product has no direction or instructions and I'm buying online.

Thanks.

This is the only information given:



Nature's Ocean Aragonite Sand - Natural Aquarium Substrate

The natural beauty of the ocean is brought right to your aquarium or fish tank with 100% natural aragonite sand. Our Nature's Ocean Aragonite Sand is natural ocean floor collected and heat sterilized for home aquarium use. This beneficial sand is ideal for reef system tank bottoms, denitrifying anaerobic beds and acts as an extremely high surface area filter media. Because our Nature's Ocean Aragonite Sand is real ocean floor it reduces nitrates, helps maintain pH, increases carbonate hardnes and provides marine trace elelments for a healthy, balanced saltwater ecosystem.

A natural aquaruim is a beautiful aquarium. The wonder and beauty of the ocean is what draws us to this fascinating, living hobby. Re-create that intricate, ethereal beauty by choosing all natural substrates and décor. Instead of detracting from your fauna, Nature's Ocean Aragonite Sand creates the perfect backdrop to show off your corals, live rocks, anemones, marine fish and sea creatures.

Beneficial Characteristics of Premium Aragonite Sand:

Reduces nitrates
Maintains pH
Increases carbonate hardness
Provides marine trace elements
Pre-washed, minimum rinsing required
100% from the ocean floor
Heat sterilized
Ideal for culturing live sand
Play sand

 

[CStrickland]

Here is a calculator http://www.reefcentral.com/index.php/sand-bed-calculator
But first you'll need to decide how deep you want the sand to be. I would suggest doing some research, as that has a big effect on how your tank operates and what maintenance you'll need to do. It's a major decision. There are lots of threads to help you decide, I would search for words like: dsb, ssb, bare bottom, rdsb, rugf. Those will help you get your head around it.

Fwiw, I don't think you are looking at crushed coral, it's bigger chunks. Aragonite is just regular tank sand. You should be spending about 50 cents a pound on it

PS I started my tank without sand. It worked out great because all the crap that came out of the rocks was easy to remove and I could change the rocks around a lot and it would've been easy to just "cook" the rocks in the tank if they turned out to have a lot of phosphates in them (they didn't tho). Adding the sand after a few weeks just made my water a little cloudy, nbd. So I killed two birds with one stone: cycling the tank, and cleaning the rocks a bit.

 

[miogpsrocks]

Here is a calculator http://www.reefcentral.com/index.php/sand-bed-calculator
But first you'll need to decide how deep you want the sand to be. I would suggest doing some research, as that has a big effect on how your tank operates and what maintenance you'll need to do. It's a major decision. There are lots of threads to help you decide, I would search for words like: dsb, ssb, bare bottom, rdsb, rugf. Those will help you get your head around it.

Fwiw, I don't think you are looking at crushed coral, it's bigger chunks. Aragonite is just regular tank sand. You should be spending about 50 cents a pound on it

PS I started my tank without sand. It worked out great because all the crap that came out of the rocks was easy to remove and I could change the rocks around a lot and it would've been easy to just "cook" the rocks in the tank if they turned out to have a lot of phosphates in them (they didn't tho). Adding the sand after a few weeks just made my water a little cloudy, nbd. So I killed two birds with one stone: cycling the tank, and cleaning the rocks a bit.

I am confused. Its advertised as " 100% from the ocean floor, natural crushed coral gravel" Could this be crush coral that is crushed more then normal into something that look like sand?

Thanks.

 

[stingeragent]

It's gonna look like sand with small chunks of coral in it. By chunks I mean mm's.

 

[CStrickland]

I am confused. Its advertised as " 100% from the ocean floor, natural crushed coral gravel" Could this be crush coral that is crushed more then normal into something that look like sand?

That is confusing. CC gravel and aragonite sand are different. I believe CC is usually 3.5-5mm grain size, where aragonite is around 1.5mm. It makes a difference for your tank because the larger size on cc means there are gaps between the grains where detritus (like poop and stuff) can fall into and build up, so you see a lot of people having trouble keeping their nitrates under control as it rots there. Unless you need that size for something, idk maybe rugf or a jawfish or a strata of a dsb perhaps?

I guess the product could be a mixture of the two... Do you have a link for it?

 

[bws]

you should do some research on the new ideas with sand beds before buying anything. you might want to even think about bare bottom, if you plan on going with mainly sps,

 

[Xxero]

40 pounds in a 40b will give you about a 2-3 inch sandbed.

 

[miogpsrocks]

That is confusing. CC gravel and aragonite sand are different. I believe CC is usually 3.5-5mm grain size, where aragonite is around 1.5mm. It makes a difference for your tank because the larger size on cc means there are gaps between the grains where detritus (like poop and stuff) can fall into and build up, so you see a lot of people having trouble keeping their nitrates under control as it rots there. Unless you need that size for something, idk maybe rugf or a jawfish or a strata of a dsb perhaps?

I guess the product could be a mixture of the two... Do you have a link for it?

So the smaller size the better?
http://www.petco.com/product/112009/Natures-Ocean-Aragonite-Sand.aspx?CoreCat=OnSiteSearch

Thanks.

 

[Dkuhlmann]

40 pounds in a 40b will give you about a 2-3 inch sandbed.

I agree and if you want a deeper sandbed use 60lbs this is what I used was a mix of aragonite and crushed coral both were med/fine mix. My sand comes to about 1/2" or so higher than the black tank trim around the bottom of the tank.

 

[Dkuhlmann]

Yes smaller is better, it just blows easily with your powerheads. So you have to watch that for shifting sand dunes and sand storms.

 

[CStrickland]

So the smaller size the better?
http://www.petco.com/product/112009/Natures-Ocean-Aragonite-Sand.aspx?CoreCat=OnSiteSearch

Thanks.

See how on the link there is like number 0 or 1 types of sand, and they are diff "grain sizes"? The bags that are less than 1mm are very fine sand, which some like the look of and find easy to clean b/c poop kinda sits on top so you can suck it out, though it can blow around and you won't be able to really use a gravel vac on it. The 1.something range bags are like regular aragonite that you would maintain normally, it's like the basic sand you are reading about. CC is the next size up from that I think. It looks like petcos sold out of it rn http://reviews.petco.com/3554/10556...cean-pacific-coral-gravel-reviews/reviews.htm but that probs changes all the time.
It's confusing how the bags all look just the same.

I like this brand for aragonite http://m.petco.com/product/121756/CaribSea-Aragonite-Aquarium-Sand.aspx though I doubt there's really much difference.

I saw your other thread about the shrimp/goby. I think an inch and a half or so is fine. I would say up to 3" is a ssb (shallow sand bed) that can give critters room to dig without needing special care. Over 3" and you have to think about dsb (deep sand bed) maintenance for stuff like hydrogen sulfide gas and stuff, that's when you start having a real ecosystem going on, rather than just cosmetics. I have about 1-2 inches but the water current and diggers pile it 3" in some spots, that's where the wrasse sleeps, and I have it lower behind the rocks where it's hard to reach to clean it.
Also, the shrimp like it if you pile up some crushed up shells or gravelly bits near the burrow entrance, they use them to stabilize their walls.