Hello,
New to the forums (and the hobby to a degree). I've been keeping freshwater tanks for 16 years now and only recently got into salt within the last year. My current tank is a 70 gallon FOWLR (I do have a couple zoas and a candy cane).
In a couple weeks I'm moving and will be upgrading to a 120 and was looking into a deep sand bed. Current tank has a 2 inch bed of CaribSea Hawaiian black which wasn't expensive to set up but with a DSB I'd be looking at somewhere in the 280-300+ lbs range for sand.
First off I'm looking for opinions on DSB vs SSB. I've done research and the idea behind the DSB is very appealing to me as it will allow for different types of fish as well as the denitrification aspect. My current shallow bed is easy to maintain, I have no issues with debris and detritus buildup. I know there are countless threads on this but I was hoping for some current info in case there were some articles/studies/etc that I may have overlooked.
Second question is grain size. What are your preferred sizes? I know CaribSea is limited in what they offer, but I'm sure there are other brands out there. I love the way the black looks in my tank now but contemplating swapping to a lighter color for the larger tank not only to mix things up as well as being told that lighter sands will reflect the light better and help with coral growth, etc. I know smaller grain is better for sand sifters such as a Diamond goby which I plan to add to the tank down the road but my fear is also snow storm from the power heads.
Third (and it ties into question #1), if I end up going with a DSB is there an option for a sand that won't get kicked up by the power heads that will still be relatively inexpensive? I'm not looking to go super cheap but I also don't want to shell out a full paycheck just to purchase the sand I need. Even with my discount at work I'd be looking at around $25 for a 20lb bag of CaribSea. In my searching I found lots of old posts about a bulk "Play Sand" made by a company called South Down, which then became Old Castle/Yard Right. These sands seem to no longer be aragonite and are all silica based. I know MarcoRocks sells bulk Oolite aragonite but everything I read on it leaves me hesitant to purchase. Most reviews said it was very messy and took forever to really settle and not get kicked around. Other places I found that had reasonable grain size were charging upwards of $2/lb not including shipping.
Thanks in advance for any information and replies.
New to the forums (and the hobby to a degree). I've been keeping freshwater tanks for 16 years now and only recently got into salt within the last year. My current tank is a 70 gallon FOWLR (I do have a couple zoas and a candy cane).
In a couple weeks I'm moving and will be upgrading to a 120 and was looking into a deep sand bed. Current tank has a 2 inch bed of CaribSea Hawaiian black which wasn't expensive to set up but with a DSB I'd be looking at somewhere in the 280-300+ lbs range for sand.
First off I'm looking for opinions on DSB vs SSB. I've done research and the idea behind the DSB is very appealing to me as it will allow for different types of fish as well as the denitrification aspect. My current shallow bed is easy to maintain, I have no issues with debris and detritus buildup. I know there are countless threads on this but I was hoping for some current info in case there were some articles/studies/etc that I may have overlooked.
Second question is grain size. What are your preferred sizes? I know CaribSea is limited in what they offer, but I'm sure there are other brands out there. I love the way the black looks in my tank now but contemplating swapping to a lighter color for the larger tank not only to mix things up as well as being told that lighter sands will reflect the light better and help with coral growth, etc. I know smaller grain is better for sand sifters such as a Diamond goby which I plan to add to the tank down the road but my fear is also snow storm from the power heads.
Third (and it ties into question #1), if I end up going with a DSB is there an option for a sand that won't get kicked up by the power heads that will still be relatively inexpensive? I'm not looking to go super cheap but I also don't want to shell out a full paycheck just to purchase the sand I need. Even with my discount at work I'd be looking at around $25 for a 20lb bag of CaribSea. In my searching I found lots of old posts about a bulk "Play Sand" made by a company called South Down, which then became Old Castle/Yard Right. These sands seem to no longer be aragonite and are all silica based. I know MarcoRocks sells bulk Oolite aragonite but everything I read on it leaves me hesitant to purchase. Most reviews said it was very messy and took forever to really settle and not get kicked around. Other places I found that had reasonable grain size were charging upwards of $2/lb not including shipping.
Thanks in advance for any information and replies.