Two sand zones?

[FishTri]

I'd like to eventually keep a mandarin as well as a jawfish.

Has anyone ever put a vertical barrier (like 2-3" strip of acrylic) across the bottom of the tank. Between the front of the tank and the barrier use a course material like crushed coral. This would give lots of nooks and crannies for pods and stuff to grow (food for the mandarin).

Behind the barrier would be a mixture of Southdown and CaribSea Reef sand for a nice mix of particle sizes, and deep enough for a jawfish to burrow.

I know there will be some mixing over time, but in general, would it work?

 

[sir_dudeguy]

While the CC would be good for the pods, i wouldnt recommend it as it will eventually just catch crap and build up nitrates or whatever. People will say to vacuum it once a week or whatever...but if you vacuum it at all, thats completely defeating the point of using it for pods.

One thing you could do is put a sort of filter sponge somewhere behind the rock maybe and pods would live in that and not be eaten.

It would be pretty neat looking though if you found some sort of rock that was long and flat that you could use as a sort of barrier instead of using the acrylic (which wouldnt look natural IMO )

 

[murfman]

Just make a deep sand bed through out and then add some CC on top or in one corner. The jaw fish likes larger sized particles, anyway.

 

[NightShade00013]

Never seen anything like that done nor read anything like it either. Would be interesting to see done though. If you have the oportunity I would say try it. I doubt it would do any harm at all just make any changes sloply should it not work and allow the divider to justset in place so that should you change your mind it would be easy to remove.

 

[FishTri]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=9760106#post9760106 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by sir_dudeguy
While the CC would be good for the pods, i wouldnt recommend it as it will eventually just catch crap and build up nitrates or whatever. People will say to vacuum it once a week or whatever...but if you vacuum it at all, thats completely defeating the point of using it for pods.

I'm thinking the crushed coral zone will be two inches wide along the front glass. I'll be running a "remote deep sand bed in a bucket" and a refugium, so I'm not too worried about nitrates. But would it look crappy after a while with crud along the front glass?

It would be pretty neat looking though if you found some sort of rock that was long and flat that you could use as a sort of barrier instead of using the acrylic (which wouldnt look natural IMO )

The arcylic barrier will only be 2-3" high - as deep as the sand in the front of the tank. It would be at, or just below, the surface of the sand, so you won't see it. The sand would get deeper (3-4") toward the back of the tank.

 

[CookieJar]

Another idea is to make a couple 'rubble' piles in strawberry baskets and put them towards the back of the tank so the pods can grow there. leave a little space in between the baskets and make a 'pod tunnel' for the mandarin.:lol: