The Puffer Forum

I was planning on turning our current 20g into a sump/refug for our new 120g. We don't have too much room under the cabinet I'm building, only about 23" of height available, so I'm not sure what kind of skimmer we can fit into it. I have quite a bit of lateral room so I'm wondering if it is wise to put another tank in there and separate the refug and sump (but this would require another pump right?).

Another thing I'm currently pondering is the type of substrate we should use in the new tank. We are going to start the tank out at low end brackish then slowly changing to marine over time. Would it be possible to use DSB (sand??) instead of gravel in the brackish tank, because we don't want to have to change substrates while changing the s.g.


That's about it for now. Thanks.

Go for crushed coral or aragonite sand.

Doesn't "regular" sand become compacted leading to an anaerobic bacteria problem. Supposedly it doesn't have the open structure of larger grained substrates which creates this.

From what we've learned, sometimes the compaction is good, leading to some more bacteria that breaks down nitrates...or something?? But it's still really confusing.

I think we're hoping to get about 1-2" aragonite sand bed in there, so we don't have to worry about the compaction and stirring up any anaerobic bacteria and flooding the system with nitrates (??) ...that is, if we can actually find aragonite sand up here.

Is it possible to get silica sand live? Or would we need to find aragonite for that?

You can get aragonite sand from Big Als or Aquariums West in Vancouver. Its expensive but worth it. I don't know much about DSB, as I have always had quite shallow sand beds. I usually lay down egg crate first on the glass to put my LR on. Then I add just enough sand to cover the egg crate. But this doesn't work for all animals you may be keeping. Some fish burrow and need more sand, so something to consider. I also just find a shallow bed easier to take care of.