I just bought my first salterwater tank its a solana 34gal. its cycling right now and I want to add fish with in the next few day However the sand that I chose is now blowing all over my rock. I dont like the look of the crushed coral or a deep and bed. I am worried I might have to go with a sandless tank. When i add the Hard corals I will be using the MP 10 which will cause Sand storms please help.
Help my sand is blowing
- Thread starter Briskies
- Start date
First let me officially welcome you to MFT. We have a small but very knowledgeable saltwater group here who will definitely do all they can to help you have success!
I see a couple of red flags here right off that bat.
1) You need to slow down your timeline. Adding fish in the next couple of days is probably not feasible, and even if things "cycled" it would be much better to give the tank more time (at least a month) to stabilize.
2) Crushed coral is generally a bad substrate option for reef tanks. You would be better off using aragonite sand. Also, you definitely need to decide how deep the sand bed will be now. If you want a DSB (Deep Sand Bed) that is fine, but you have to realize it will need to be 4" or more. Alternatively, you can go with a sandbed around 1/2" and have the sand look without the DSB. Anything in between is asking for trouble if you don't do a lot of weekly maintenance.
3) Corals really shouldn't be going into the tank any time soon. If by hard corals you many "SPS" corals I would recommend you wait quite a while so that you can learn the nuances of SW tank maintenance. They will also require a lot of light, probably in the form of Metal Halides, which can be a major expense. The MP 10 should provide pretty good flow for you, but you may need more than even what it can provide as well.
A couple of questions:
1) Do you have a sump? Are you using a protein skimmer? If so, what kind?
2) Is your rock "live rock"?
3) What sort of lighting are you using?
4) What are you testing for?
5) Where are you getting setup advice? Have you read any books?
I hope this hasn't come across as aggressive or attacking...I'm really not trying to do so. I know how frustrating it is to throw a lot of money, time, and heart into something and have it become a mess due to a poor foundation and I'm just trying to head that off before you reach the point of putting in fish/coral and having rapid die-off.
I see a couple of red flags here right off that bat.
1) You need to slow down your timeline. Adding fish in the next couple of days is probably not feasible, and even if things "cycled" it would be much better to give the tank more time (at least a month) to stabilize.
2) Crushed coral is generally a bad substrate option for reef tanks. You would be better off using aragonite sand. Also, you definitely need to decide how deep the sand bed will be now. If you want a DSB (Deep Sand Bed) that is fine, but you have to realize it will need to be 4" or more. Alternatively, you can go with a sandbed around 1/2" and have the sand look without the DSB. Anything in between is asking for trouble if you don't do a lot of weekly maintenance.
3) Corals really shouldn't be going into the tank any time soon. If by hard corals you many "SPS" corals I would recommend you wait quite a while so that you can learn the nuances of SW tank maintenance. They will also require a lot of light, probably in the form of Metal Halides, which can be a major expense. The MP 10 should provide pretty good flow for you, but you may need more than even what it can provide as well.
A couple of questions:
1) Do you have a sump? Are you using a protein skimmer? If so, what kind?
2) Is your rock "live rock"?
3) What sort of lighting are you using?
4) What are you testing for?
5) Where are you getting setup advice? Have you read any books?
I hope this hasn't come across as aggressive or attacking...I'm really not trying to do so. I know how frustrating it is to throw a lot of money, time, and heart into something and have it become a mess due to a poor foundation and I'm just trying to head that off before you reach the point of putting in fish/coral and having rapid die-off.