Types 'o sand

[ncutler]

I just wanted to thank you guys for the suggestion of using egg crate. In a 24" tank with rock going up one wall, it's definately a good idea. to spread the weight out, since I haven't added the fish yet it will be much easier to do it now.

I also looked into aragonite sand vs. crushed coral - I could never find crushed coral in my area. Apparently crushed Coral is much more sharp and abrassive than aragonite sand. Didn't know if that was mentioned or not.

[twistedfisher]

yes it is and if you want to add some darker color you can toss in some fluorite for black factor

[ncutler]

Question: According to the first post, Pool Filter Sand seems to be the heaviest sand to avoid getting into the water column. Since I used coarse aragonite, I haven't seen my multies digging behaviour at all and thus I've recommended to my co-worker to get sand.

How much does the shellies affect sand in the water column? Or is the sand in the water column problem only for when you are moving things around?

She's thinking of using tahitian white sand over aragonite sugar sized sand because of the sand in water column issue, and I'm not sure if it's worth worrying about it if the aragonite will help buffer. I have plenty of home made dead rock that buffers to about 8.2, so she was planning on using that.

[fish head]

you might need to attach a sponge to your power filter intake for a bit...until the sand settles, in my experience

some do that to protect fry as well

shorten the power filter intake tube, so its not near the bottom of the tank

when the multies are spitting sand, it usually goes down and not up, unless you have too much current in the tank

for me, when I'm moving things around, or doing some cleaning, if sand gets in the filter, I can hear it, and a quick rinse of the impeller takes care of that

That's very cool that you've got a co-worker shelldweller enthusiast!

[Cichlid Junkie]

Once the multies start digging they will get into the aragonite sugar sized sand (oolite) and it will be floating around in your water column.  I'll be changing out my Oolite substrate for Caribsea African Cichlid sand.