The Puffer Forum

I am planning on picking up some regular aragonite sand and about 20lbs of live rock.
From what I have learned the live rock will turn the regular aragonite sand into "live" sand once cycled.
Is this true?

For a 55 gallon tank, how many lbs of sand should I use?

Thanks!

Yes it's true. The amount of sand you need depends on how deep you want your sand bed.

approx 2inches

Should I lay down the live rock first and then pour in the sand, or pour the sand in first, or does it not matter?
This will be fresh live rock from the lfs.

I put my sand in first then my lr. But it's really your preference. I would start with at least 50lbs of sand and see if that gives you the 2 in. depth that you want.

To estimate I use 1Lb per gallon per inch depth, usually pretty acurate.

Rock always goes 1st, otherwise the sand will move causing the rock to topple over. Also, you don't want the sand to compact under the rock.

Pufferpunk wrote:Rock always goes 1st, otherwise the sand will move causing the rock to topple over. Also, you don't want the sand to compact under the rock.

Excellent point.

Allow me to recommend Gulf View Rock (http://www.gulf-view.com). Their $2/lb rock is better than $7/lb rock I've seen elsewhere. It's awesome!

I'm going to be need a large quantity of LR for my new SW. Is it possible to by a base rock and place LR in with it? Will the LR seed the base rock like it does sand? And if it does, how long does that take?

Absolutely will. Not sure how long that takes though.

Btw, I recommend a DSB for the puffer tank, or at least a remote DSB. With a dsb I have virtually zero problems with nuisance algae growth, something that always plagued my puffer tanks before, even with massive water changes, heavy skimming, etc. Just make sure there's plenty of water flow in the aquarium, and that you get lots of sand sifting snails.

MMaddox,

If you don't mind me asking, what brand of substrate did you use for your DSB?

You can't do a DSB in a tank as small as 30g.
http://www.ronshimek.com/deep_sand_beds.html

Thanks for the heads up Pufferpunk!!