Sand

BestMomEver · May 9, 2018

I currently have 20lbs of live sand in my 15 gallon FOWLR and plan on using it in my new 60 cube. I have contemplated adding some aragonite to that along with another 40lbs of sand. I thought the aragonite might help maintain calcium/pH better than just the sand. The plan is to put aragonite then my existing 20lbs of sand followed by the new sand. So I have questions....

Is the aragonite a good idea? Should I put my live sand under, in or on top of the new sand? Or should I stir it all up together?

Another thing... where do I get plastic egg crate? I think I might put it on the bottom to protect the glass against potential rock fall.

Please chime in!

Crabs McJones · May 9, 2018

esimison said:
I currently have 20lbs of live sand in my 15 gallon FOWLR and plan on using it in my new 60 cube. I have contemplated adding some aragonite to that along with another 40lbs of sand. I thought the aragonite might help maintain calcium/pH better than just the sand. The plan is to put aragonite then my existing 20lbs of sand followed by the new sand. So I have questions....

Is the aragonite a good idea? Should I put my live sand under, in or on top of the new sand? Or should I stir it all up together?

Another thing... where do I get plastic egg crate? I think I might put it on the bottom to protect the glass against potential rock fall.

Please chime in!

How long has the sand been in your 15 gallon Fowlr? Generally it's not recommended to reuse sand as it has alot of detritus and other things trapped in it. And when you mix up the sand bet that all gets released into the water and can cause ammonia spikes. I'd start with all new sand in the 60 personally :)

DesertReefT4r · May 9, 2018

Just get new sand and use a couple lbs of old sand to seed the new. Or if you really want to save it save a couple lbs to seed and rinse the rest really well. Meleves Reef has a good YouTube video on cleaning sand.