Anyone else dissapointed......

[SuperFudge]

With their oolotic sand?

I am so sick of flippin atleast 5 snails a day becuase the buggers cant get enouph weight from the fine sand to right themselves.
And then we got the opportunistic blue leg hermits just waiting for the right moment to pounce!

Sorry...had to vent a little,but anyone have a bag of med grade aragonite that i can cover this crappy sand with?

Id be more than happy to give 50 small hermits for just one bag,and kill two crabs..err i mean birds with one stone.

Anyone?,Marc.

[ 04 September 2001: Message edited by: Fudge ]

[christyf5]

I know exactly what you mean. Last time I was in Vancouver I picked up 8 snails and about 5 blue legged hermits. Within a couple of days of getting home the hermits were all wearing snail shells. Pain in the butt since the snail shells are so large they are toppling all sorts of small corals in my tank.
So what do you do? Just pour the new sand over the old?? I've noticed that my sand bed has settled quite a bit (about 1.5inches instead of the original 3 on a plenum)in only 4 months. I also used live sand, won't putting new stuff over top kill it??

Christy [img]images/smiles/icon_smile.gif[/img]

PS. anyone want a couple of left handed hermits?? Free!!

[smokinreefer]

your sand settled from 3" to 1.5"? are you using oolitic sand, the powdery fine stuff. cuz if you are i think your sand has filled in your plenum. thus making it useless.

[christyf5]

no I used the bigger stuff over the plenum (CARIBSEA SPECIAL GRADE REEF SAND 1-1.7mm) then put another layer of screening over top of that and then got some live sand from J&L (arag-alive reef sand)to put on top of the screening. I was looking at it last night. It seems to have settled out in some spots and moved around a bit. Like 1 inch deep in one spot and 1.5-2 in another. It still could use some more but I can see the plenum at the back of the tank (probably not good) and it hasn't filled in. Besides I used small enough screening on both layers so that only the finest grains of beach sand could get through and the aragonite is bigger than that. I guess the stuff I have isn't as powdery fine as yours but it is pretty small on the top layer.
I think some of the "settling" is also due to a big algae bloom that I had on top of the sand (it was pretty massive) so I removed some of it (along with quite a bit of sand it had attached to).
So do you think its possible to add more or should I just leave well enough alone??

Christy [img]images/smiles/icon_smile.gif[/img]

[SuperFudge]

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by christyf5:
So do you think its possible to add more or should I just leave well enough alone??

Christy [img]images/smiles/icon_smile.gif[/img]<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>


Christy,

IMVHO,your plenum will need atleast double the sand you have now to function properly.

Your plenum needs to be semi anoxic to achieve a lower PH within the substrate,this dissolves your sand bed slowly and replenishes your water with Carbonates(among others).
If the plenum is exposed anywhere it is likely that it is not working as a plenum at all.
If you already have added fish,i would definatly increase slowly,but definatly increase.

I am by no means an authority nor have i operated a plenum,but i do know that it is a tough sytem to get up and functioning properly,but achieves good results if correctly done.

JMVHO,Marc. [img]images/smiles/icon_biggrin.gif[/img]

[christyf5]

Thanks for the info. Guess I'll start putting in more sand ASAP. I think about 2 inches should do it. Hey how much aragonite do you need. I have about 30 lbs here and I don't think I am gonna use all of it. I got it from J&L. I think its 1-1.7mm or whatever it says on their site. Caribsea Seaflor Special Grade Reef Sand. Thats what it says on the bag. Anyway, if you haven't found any by now and you don't need a ton, let me know.

Christy [img]images/smiles/icon_smile.gif[/img]

[smokinreefer]

FWIW i htink i had atleast 2-3" of sand above my plenum. if the plenum isnt "buried" enough it will not work properly. so put that sand you have in.
HTH