Lets Talk Substrates for the Marine Aquarium

[Joseph_Joe]

I actually just came here to ask about this option. May I ask how deep your substrate is and the ratio of each type of sand you've used?

I've inherited a 65g/250L tank and wanted to set it up with a deep substrate (4-5inches/10-12cm). However, since it would cost a small fortune to use live sand only to achieve this depth in a tank this large, I was thinking of using a mix of fine silica-based sand and miracle mud for the bottom inch, a cheap medium-fine carbonate-based sand for the middle two inches and live sand for the top inch.

Has anyone tried something like that or knows enough about substrates to know how well this would work?

Thanks in advance!

Hi,

If you think of reducing costs, my whole setup was done with dead minerals that I activated afterward with bacteria and pods. So you can even get rid of the live top layer if you want. Since it's the layer that will be in contact with water column, it will be activated quicker than any other layers. You can save some money
For ratios, I was 2 volume of carbonate for 1 volume of silica. Total depth vary, but I think I am around 7 cm (5 to 10 cm depending on the location in my tank).

 

[littlestar]

Hi! New here, reading up all I can. I recently inherited a nano tank that is home to 2 small clowns, a royal gramma and 2 soft corals. The substrate is currently crushed shell, which I would like to keep, but I would also like to add some aragonite sand. Is this possible? Thanks in advance!