neupane00

hey guys, question. i am planning to do just 1 inch live sand setup. is it necessary to put in inverts there? i would like to have only coral and some fish tank if possible. But people say that if i have sand there i cant really siphon the junk out and i NEED some inverts. Is that true? so really 3 questions:

1) Do i NEED to add inverts if i have 1 inch live sand substrate? If so what are good for 40 gallon tank?

2) if i dont want inverts, should i not go with sand and go with crushed coral?

3) how do i clean sand ? i cant siphon out right? cus it will drain the sand out along with water?

thanks so much for your help.

au01st

Pretty tough to have a reef tank without inverts. I wouldn't even bother with buying live substrate, just pick one you like, rinse it out, and put down an inch. It will be come live enough over time.

I don't even know why they still sell crushed coral as a substrate. It collects detrius like nobody's business.

Inverts keep your sand turned over, to 'clean' it, you could just stir it up a little bit every week before doing a water change to pick up anything floating in the water.

Hypnox

Even with 1 inch of substrate you will want to have atleast sand burrowing snails to keep it cleaned out. Nassarius snails do a great job of this and won't get much larger than 1 1/2" long fully grown. The biggest reason for having inverts in a tank is detritous export. They will eat anything and everything from fish poop to left over food and diatomeceous build up in the sand. They are an essential part of keeping a system healthy in my opinion.

MizRamzi

As a newbee I thank you. I needed this info as well. By the way, does anyone know what kind of snail I could put into a brackish water tank? For just this purpose. I also have a sand substrate in there.