Mixing Southdown w/ TBS LS?

[tygger]

I was wondering if it were ok to mix Southdown/YardRight playsand with TBS' LS due to the different textures?

 

[mogurnda]

I was worried that the fine sand would smother everything, so I layered the TBS sand over the playsand. It seems to have worked, and a lot of things have burrowed down into the finer sand.

 

[tygger]

I was planning to do the same thing... playsand first and the TBS on top.

Does it look weird in your tank seeing 2 completely different layers? Or has the 2 sand types slowly mixed it's way together?

Thanks!

 

[mogurnda]

It's definitely two layers. Doesn't look funny to me, but it might to somebody else. As the worms burrow around, the larger stuff is mixing with the finer sand, but it's not happening that fast.

 

[tygger]

I see. How long has it been since you mixed the 2? Thanks!

 

[mogurnda]

Only 4 months so far.

 

[Scuba Oz]

GET WELL SOON MARY!!!!!! :rollface: :rollface: :rollface: :rollface:

Hope all goes well, and a speedy recovery :thumbsup:

 

[tygger]

 

[tygger]

Ok, now I understand...

 

[shanekennedy]

i added ~2" of southdown to bottom of tank
then covered w/ 2" of tbs sand
seen many critters burrown down in the southdown
also had conchs & pistols dig down & mix the 2 up a bit

 

[Snarkys]

wont the finer sand always settle out on the bottem ?

 

[Edge]

an easy trick if you don't like the 2 layer effect is to leave a 1 inch gap between the front glass and the edge of the bottom layer of the southdown then use the coarser sand on top and to fill in the gap. That way you only see one type of sand and none's the wiser.
ED

 

[luckiM]

Ok. I'm new and doing my research right now. I just finished reading woog's monster thread. I was also wondering about mixing the two. Is there any benefit to doing this, or any reason not to?

 

[phil519]

you deserve one of those "welcome" posts but unfortunately i have no idea how to do it. (some help from another poster?)

There is nothing specifically more beneficial that I can think of to mixing it - other than saving some cost from buying all that LS. As others mentioned - finer sand will simply eventually settle under the coarser stuff - especially with all the activity (live critters) in the sand. There is occasionally finer sand being deposited to the surface of my sandbed - similar to how an earthworm deposits its droppings on the surface -. I have no idea what (likely some kind of worm) is doing this but find it interesting how spots of "fine white" sand appear randomly in my tank. My reason for getting sand was to fill-in spots that my maroon clown dug.

 

[Qwiv]

I actually mixed it a bit in part of my tnk and think it looks great. They look nice together. I am actually adding SD slowly on top of my TBS sand and letting it settle.

 

[Ruu]

I added about 5lbs of TBS sand onto 100lbs of TBS, just to see what would burrow down really. I think it looks prettty good, but it really isnt any more than a light covering.

Dave

 

[docklink]

Ok. I'm new and doing my research right now. I just finished reading woog's monster thread. I was also wondering about mixing the two. Is there any benefit to doing this, or any reason not to?