Quote:
|
Originally Posted by Scuba Steve Thank you so much for youre reply. I have just moved house and had to dismantle my reef tank. This time I am starting again with just fish only. My system holds just over 800 litres so I intend to keep non aggressive fish pretty much. Is there a better/preferred bottom with a fish only tank? I have always been told to keep the sand bed at least 3 inches deep. Judging by my responses this advice appears to be a little dated. Would you agree? Thank you for your advice. |
Hmm as for the depth of the substrate being a little dated, I would have to say it kinda is if you are using that as the general baseline for adding a substrate.
There are valid reasons for having a substrate that deep. For example if you want to have any wrasses in the tank, they like to bury themselves in sand and dive down into it when startled as a way to hide. Substrate dwelling or sifting gobies could use the deeper substrate as well because it will harbour a lot of live foods and they will be able to dig their home in a more natural way.
Personally I don't like the look of a bare bottom tank, however a lot of people do and over time it will become covered in coralline algae so it's appearance wont be as noticable. There are a lot of advantages like being able to see all the debris easily and having the higher currents along the substrate makes it more likely debris will stay in the water column long enough to go through the sump instead of settling in the tank.
It's best you research the types of fish that you want and see if they need a deep substrate. If not then it's more of a personal preference. You can decide if you want anything in the tank or not. If you do decide to have some sort of substrate then you could also get away with a thinner layer 1/2" to 1" which will be easier to keep clean then a deeper substrate.
I would say that going for a Deep Sand Bed (4+ inches) is out of the question and it is too limited and can cause a lot of problems down the road.
Aragonite comes in many different forums. It's the name used for a calcium based sand. You can get very fine pure white sand online or at some home depots depending on where you are and is generally refered to as "tropical play sand" or "caribean play sand" . Other types of aragonite is more course like a river gravel called (I believe) Carib aragonite.