Adding live sand

[Doc]

one trick to lessen the amount of dust cloud you get is to rinse the bag good with RO water and actually submerge the entire bag into the tank and rest it on the bottom. Reach in and cut open all the sides of the bag to allow the sand to pour out.

-Doc

[yote]

Originally Posted by Doc

one trick to lessen the amount of dust cloud you get is to rinse the bag good with RO water and actually submerge the entire bag into the tank and rest it on the bottom. Reach in and cut open all the sides of the bag to allow the sand to pour out.

-Doc

Thats the key to keeping the sand storm down.

[fatman]

Over a period of time a deep sand bed will actually become a better filtration system than your live rock. If starting out with 100 percent live sand in a full tank deep sand bed it can easily replace part or even all of a normal load of live rock. However, it is typically more expensive to put in a full (live sand) deep sand bed than to use live rock, therefore most deep sand beds are dead sand innoculated with a little live sand. I have a hard time considering bagged, shelf stored, sand as live sand. A shallow sand bed will never out perform live rock. A sand bed should be less than an inch deep or over 6 inches deep to be both safe and or beneficial. If you want cosmetics go for an inch. If you want animals and wrasses go for 3 to 4 inches. If your major concern is biological filtration go for 5 to 6 inches deep (this is a deep sand bed).