About to move - possible substrate change? Advice please. . .

[Cavalier2123]

I have a 90g reef tank. It's mostly live rock and soft corals, with a cleaning crew of stars, crabs, snails, etc., and 3 fish. Have been using crushed coral for the past few years, but since I am moving and will toss out all of the old substrate I am pondering making the move to sand. Any advice on that decision would be appreciated. Also, how many pounds of sand should I use? Like I said, it's a 90g tank with probably about +/- 90 pounds of live rock. Thanks.

 

[Amphiprion]

Well, now would be the time to do it. My only suggestion is to have plenty of ready made saltwater for a water change in case you get any mini cycling issues. There are plenty of sand bed calculators on the web. Just input your tank area (LxW) and desired sand bed depth and it will give you the necessary amount in pounds.

 

[Pasfur]

I would also suggest a reef grade aragonite sand. You do not want a powder type sand, which you will often see for sale. When it comes to depth, consider 2 options. If you go just under 1'' in depth, nutrient buildup will probably not be a long term issue. If you go between 4'' and 6'' depth, you should see good denitrification. Anything inbetween tends to trap nutrients and cause long term issues, without the proper denitrification.

 

[Felix T Cat]

Will you be buying "live sand" or not ?. If live sand it will dramatically reduce the cycle but be much more expensive. I started my nano with live #0 sand and hated it. I am upgrading to a 29g and got base #1 sand which is a larger grain. I'l seed it with sand from the nano but have the larger grain.

Personally I hated the #0 sand because the grain was so small that it created a major sandstorm any time you did something in the tank.