Cali Kid Corals

Lets talk about sand

porksmash

porksmash

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I'm nearing the point where I will need to start buying rocks and sand. Rocks I have pretty well figured out, but I had a couple questions about sand beds that I'd like to hear opinions on.

1) I'm planning on having a deep bed in the refugium, but what about in the main tank? Is a shallow one OK?
2) When buying sand, would it be best to buy a mix of live and dead sand or will buying all dead sand be fine? I know a cycle will take longer with 100% dead sand but I'm curious how beneficial all the little creatures that come with true live sand are. I also want to be nice to my wallet and avoid buying 100% live sand.
3) I've seen bags of wet sand from CaribSea that claim to contain all the necessary bacteria. Is this a decent product? It is certainly cheaper than buying real sand taken from the ocean, but then again I believe the bacteria is artificially added and you are missing all the little creatures.

For reference, my tank is 100 gal (60"x16"x24") and I will have a 55 gal sump. I'm guessing my refugium section of the sump will end up at 20-25 gal.
 
The benefits of the "bacteria in the bag!" sand products are prettymuch equivalent to buying dry sand and pouring in a bottle of your favorite cycle-accelerating product. Most of the little creatures you're interested in will come in on live rock, so you don't need to worry about missing out on them if you're buying dry sand or caribsea's "no-cycle" sand. Regardless of what you go with, it'll need to be rinsed - bags of wet sand tend to need less rinsing, but they're (much) more expensive. Buy what you think is pretty, and that your wallet and rinsing bucket can live with. :D
 
It all depends on where you go because I got wet sand or carabean sand for just about the same as dry sand from my LFS. And you can go with a shallow sand bed in the DT. And a deep in the fuge just your preference really.
 
Your best bet for getting all the little creatures and etc. is to swap sand with fellow reefers. If you ever trade w/ someone ask them to throw in a sample of sand w/ some critters, most people are nice enough to even go to the trouble of catching a few pods and such.

Given the right conditions they can multiply quickly.
 
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