A dip into the local knowledge pool
 

Hey, for your basic clowns which is better, wider, more surface area with less gallonage or taller, more gallonage but less surface area? *working on my clown tank, er I mean will be soon, just running some checks first*

wider is always (IMO) better as fish do not swim vertically

J

Yup, I would go with wider. Especially since most people who start with clowns will eventually want anemones for them to host in. A shallow tank will facilitate getting enough light to the anemone.

what is a good depth then?

6 inches? Oh also, would haveing 2x times the live sand make up for having 1/2 the live rock?

Wow, 6 inches is quite shallow. I would say 12 inches might be a good depth to shoot for.

I personally don't think we need as much live rock as the ambiguously-quoted 1.5-2 pounds/gallon, so I wouldn't think more sand would do much for you. But then again, I'm of the barebottom persuasion. Ahem.

ok I was just 'shooting ideas' out and seeing what you guys thought, I'm cheap tank persuasion myself, so buying white or black sand in 5 pound *or w/e I can find* bags from the hardware store is allot cheaper then buying live rock at the current prices (: *not that I wouldn't have some live rock, just not as much*

BTW I agree with you, 1.5-2pounds/gallon is allot of live rock, *but of course, this recommendation is given by live rock selling pet/other stores*

What is a recomended anemone for nano's, not that I would be getting one anytime soon? *I personally don't like the idea of a major stinging organisms in my tank*

is this the same tank that you want to put the acro's in?
If it is, a small tank with a anemone and SPS will not work in my opinion.
All anemones sting to some point and like to move around.
SPS don't like to be stung and can react negatively to it (ie..die).
just my opinion, but I don't think you should have both in the same tank.
BTW, not all stores suggest 1.5 - 2 lbs per gallon. I think it is more personal preference and I think that the suggested norm is about 1 lb per gallon.
I dont' think however that by putting alot of sand in you tank is going to do anything for you except take up space. BTW, you can buy 50 lbs of playsand at homedepot for about 4.99
For a small tank, say a 20 gallon, 15 - 20 lbs of rock isn't going to cost all that much....there are times you can buy it here for 3.00 - 5.00 a lb.
I think that the typical 20 gallon tank would be sufficient for 2 clowns and an anemone.
anything smaller than that will be a bit small for the clowns when they get bigger...as well as the anemone will grow as well.
HTH
Neal

You don't want to put "home depot" sand in a fish tank.

i have lots of times.
I haven't noticed any problems at all.
why do u say that?

I tried it in my very first SW tank and it ended in a mess, the sand clumped together and the water would not clear and I ended up having to drain and start over. (It was a 10 G so it was not that much work mind you) I just went and got the agrimax sand and have used it since with success.

Interesting
I have used in in about 10 of my tanks and haven't noticed any problems at all.
obviously, if money isn't an issue than agri is the way to go.
However, it sounds like money might be a concern, so I just made of a suggestion.

Do you know which brand of HD sand it was, or the specific name of the product? They sell playsand, colored, and I grabbed the MSDS sheets, and they seemed to be okay, but I haven't tried it yet.

So your water was really murkey?

Alas, I couldn't tell you the name, it was a couple years ago I tried this and I already had the sand in the house from another unrealted project. I think the problem was that it was too fine of a paticle so the water was really murky and even after a week it never calmed down with the flow on (I was using a modded AC500 and a seio on that time)

It almost seemed like the sand molecules bonded with the h20 and there were whispy clumps of sand constantly in the water.

they do have different types
the type I use is the light beige colour and is a more coarse grade of sand.
I can understand why if it was really fine that it would cause problems.
was it the white sand? cuz I remember them having some that was white which was much more finer than what I bought.

Hmm ok 5 pounds of sand may be inaccurate but u get the idea, I think I'll skip the anemone till another 10 gallons. *goes for xenia*

hmm ok since you have had experience with this sand, what is a good type of hard-ware store sand to get for salt tanks? What sized particle should I avoid?

Try to avoid extremely fine sand. The smallest you probably want to cosider going is something the consistency of white sugar.

hmmk tks for advice

Some of the "playsand" contained silica in it I thought which could cause algae blooms? I thought I read that a while back. I could be wrong though.

sigh... anyone know if silica causes algae blooms?

Do a search on the board and you'll find a lot of info.

hmm well aparently many types of algea and small organisms like that have/are made up of a large amount of silica

Target play sand is what you need. I have it in my freshwater tank and it is great. The cloudiness in our 150 gallon tall only lasted a couple of hours after adding everything. I think you get it at Home Depot at around $5 per bag.

well other then fw is dif then sw ok,

thanks Pier Pressure.
I was trying to remember the type of sand I used.
target play sand from home depot is what I have used in lots of tanks and I haven't noticed any difference at all between those tanks and the other ones that have the agrimix sand.
Neal

ok tks guys, it'll save me a bunch of $ (:do u guys find that if you have a skimmer rated for a larger tank that you don't have to do water changes as often?

Very welcome, Howdy20012002.

I am not sure if this is the same concept but we over-filtered our 150 gallon freshwater tank with two Rena XP3's and one of those new Fluval F4s or whatever they are called. We have a fairly large bioload and are still doing the water changes once a week, the concept being why take a chance?

Who wants to watch their livestock go south if the concept is wrong? We just decided we did not want to take the chance, especially on that size of tank.

Almost all commercial sand is silicate. Silicates grow diatoms. Diatoms are ugly. Therefore, don't use silicate sand in a reef aquarium. I'd also worry about what else was in "commercial grade" sandbox sand. Tons of things that wouldn't worry a kid will be bad for a reef.

its not like i'm just dumping in the sand, i'll rinse it out, plus if there is a problem my filter should be able to take care of it