A couple questions, live rock, substrate

[treecowboy42]

I have a 55gal, with a sump, a Current protein skimmer, I have 2-3 inches of 60% crushed coral,and 40% Argonite. My first question, is should I add more sand for sand sifters, like Gobys, or starfish? I am getting 50 lbs of liverock, and I was going to cure and cycle it with my new set up, I was wondering, do most people glue the rock together, or do you just place it on top of it self?

[lockekeyy]

It sounds like you have enough sand. I would go with maybe 5 or more pounds of rock. I just stack mine very carefully. A lot of people use acrylic rods, PVC pipes, epoxy to hold it all together.

[rad3dad]

I personally don't like crushed coral in a reef tank. I don't want to scare you, but I would recommend combing as much of it out, as you can. Some won't hurt, but I wouldn't want it to be the majority of a reef bed. It tends to clog up with debris and causes problems down the road.

That and the depth of your bed is at a danger zone too, so removing it would be the best option. DSB's( deep sand beds) are about 6 inches deep to do the anaerobic filtering, otherwise 2 inches or less are recommended and need critters or manual stirring from time to time, to prevent dead zones. The gobys/burrowing wrasses would prefer a more sugar grain/argonite mix

Again, I'm not trying to scare you, I see them like that all the time, but I don't think its the best option, and it sounds like its still early enough to correct it with out much disassembling. I would recommend pulling the rock into some storage containers if it causes quite a bit of silt to stir up, if you decide to do it.

As far as the rock goes, I would recommend just stacking it, because chances are you will change the layout as time goes on, when placing corals, or new pieces of live rock.

[treecowboy42]

Thanks for the info rad3dad, yes I have been reading and see I ned more sand type, i was looking at getting most of the crushed coral out and adding this product, what do you think? http://www.drsfostersmith.com/product/prod_display.cfm?c=3578+10741+9805+7321&pcatid=7321

[rad3dad]

Yea, that would be a good choice. It tends to need alot of rinsing, and easer to do a little at a time. but the cloudiness that is initially left will settle, usually overnight.