What type of substrate would be ideal?

[Croniss]

Hello,

Im very new to the hobby and im taking this move into my new home as a chance to correct all of my rookie mistakes ive made (more to come). First since i will be having to replace my current live sand bed i was wondering what type of substrate would actually best fit my final goals of stock.

What i would like to have in my 75g in about 6 months from now.

2x Clownfish
1x Coral Beauty
various SPS
various mushrooms
pistol shrimp/gobi
anenome crab
plus 1-2 anenomes depending on if clowns can share with the crab

If theres any issues with the livestock choice please let me know.
My main concern is what kind of substrate to use since it will be a large investment and my time to purchase is running out. Also as filtration i will have a reef octopus bh2000 HOB, that i plan on running in my sump for the time being until i get an in sump one, I also have a fluval canister filter which once i have my sump/refugium up and running it will be removed. as a sump/refugium i plan on using a 30gallon used aquarium with everything home made.

Any advice is greatly appreciated. I need some direction please when i research it through various forums i find pros/cons for each and would like a someone to take a look at my goals and suggest a good fit.

 

[567234ta]

sand.

 

[Croniss]

a deep sand bed? or shallow? live sand only? what size?

 

[Michigan Mike]

Going for SPS then you'll need alot of flow in the tank so get a bigger grained aragonite sand. Something like caribsea special grade reef sand. Or any similar sand with 1-2mm grains( or a bit larger maybe ). Don't use fine sand or you will want to kick yourself later( like me ) don't need live sand either.

 

[ToniYo]

+1 on Caribsea seaflor special grade reef sand

 

[Croniss]

I'm looking into this type of substrate. My only concern is wont the larger particles (above 2mm) become detritus traps and require siphoning? If it does I'm fine with the maintenance I just don't know the frequency of cleanings required to keep this type of sand clean. Thanks for the reply!

 

[Croniss]

i dont know if im using the forum correctly. Everytime I start a thread i have to sift through the "new to the hobby" area to find my own thread instead of having some sort of centralized location where all my threads can be checked. also when i reply to someone, do i just type in the bottom area and press quick reply? or would i type in the bottom and press the quick reply button that appears below the actual post im trying to reply to? Anyway I chose to go with the caribsea seaflor substrate, just have a few questions. how deep should the bed be? 1-2" or 4" also if it needs to be deeper then 1-2 could i put some sort of cheaper "alternative" substrate as the bottom or would it just be best to do 4" of the same type of carib sea. lastly how often do i need to clean it? i chose livesand for my current 55gal and im really unhappy with it, it always looks dirty and ive been battling algae for 3-4 months now, pretty much since i started the hobby. i feel the problem lies with the live sand, ive solved everything else. I stopped overfeeding, replaced bulbs, use only RODI water, light cycle is on a strict 8 hours a day. oh well i hope to really do things right when i switch to this 75. Anyway sorry for the ramble thanks again!

 

[ToniYo]

Hey! I'll try to address the things that I can but if anyone knows a better way, please say so

1. Under the RC banner at the top of this page, in the first dark blue strip, you will find several handy drop down menus. Under "Quick Links" you will see "Subscribed Threads". I know this has all the threads that you have posted in or have subscribed to and I think it includes any you have started.

2. There are sand beds and then there are DSBs (Deep Sand Beds). Do some research on here to see what suits your needs and tank size. I have had both and for me a regular sand bed of about 3 inches works best.The sand bed is part of the filtration process housing anaerobic bacteria that break down the nitrates to harmelss nitrogen. I incorporate a good cleanup of crew consisting of plenty of sand stirrers to keep my sand bed clean. Nassarius, trochus, ceriths, olives and conchs will all do a good job. There are those people that clean their sand bed at each water change.

3. Algae is one of those topics on which you will find hundreds of pages if you search. There are different algaes that pose different problems. I do tend to believe that once a tank is cycled, managing the nutrients in your tank that contribute to or inhibit algae is a good place to start. I would recommend researching phosphates and magnesium.

I hope this helps!