Live sand

[vincentputter]

Hi guys! I bought a new power head and now It's blowing all my fine live sand everywhere. Can anyone help me with like 4 cups o' course live/dead sand please.

 

[crispin]

have u tried moving the power head higher up in the water collumn and or deflecting its power off rocks or other pumps?

 

[vincentputter]

I've tried all possible options.

 

[AdamVR]

The seabed??

 

[vincentputter]

The seabed??

I do not quite understand?

 

[AdamVR]

Meant to collect some sand from the beach... but I realised that it might be illegal. If you pay the postage, I'll send you some from Pta?

 

[vincentputter]

Beach sand Is full of silicates and nuisance algae feed on It. There Is also too much unwanted heavy metals, bacteria, pests and diseases in beach sand that can be problematic.

I posted only an Iphone to JHB and It cost me like R86, only one cup 'o sand weigh about 3 times more than an Iphone so just think how much I'm going to spend to send 4 cups o' sand.

I was thinking of going bare bottom on my tank. LOL! I'll first try and get some sand from a nearby reefer. If I can't find any then I'll go BB.

Thank you so much AdamVR for trying to help.

 

[crispin]

I've tried all possible options.

vincent there are many ways to skin a cat, lets see if we can find better options for you to try

Firstly what pump is it thats causing all the issues and what l/hour does it pump?

Secondly is it controllable and or can ypou take it down to 50% of its opperation. Im assuming its not, but worth asking?

thirdly placement of the pump in the aquarium and where it blows against can have a strong influence and while i hear you when you say youve tried aløl options here, just have another look, its often the best way.

you can also 'choke' the pump back by wrapping some foam or a guard (like in nennie proofing a pump) to restrict its intake and thus lower its output.

these are just a few thoughts off the top of my head, there realy are alot of things one can do to use a pump. although by far the best is to have pumps on controllers which are not over powered for the tank and if a pump is just too powerful you may need to replace it with a smaller pump. too much flow can be detrimental to more than just your sand bed so you will need to read up and check that aspect as well.


sorry I am giving you more to think about rather than advice on what to do, but with the amount of info we have on the situation its all I can offer at the moment.

 

[vincentputter]

The power head Is 5000L/h none adjustable and It's In a 40l tank. I know Its WAY too much but I like the flow that It's at now. My problem Is that my live sand Is almost like powder (way less than 1mm).
The one option I tried was not blowing everything everywhere but moving my sand bed around allot and It would create spots on the bottom where there is no sand at all.