Keeping sand bed level

[Snook65]

My 120 tank has been cycling with 100 pounds of live fiji for the past 5 weeks. I was pleased because I had very little if any cycle. Rock was purchased from Premium Aquatics and I was very happy with the assortment of sizes and the life on the rock (It was pre-cured). Will be adding another 60 or 70 pounds of Marshall Island in the next few weeks. I used 250 pounds of SD sand and seeded it with live Fiji and Live Florida sand. My problem it that I cannot adjust my powerheads and pump return to stop thinning the sandbed down in the front of the tank, and forcing the sand towards the live rock in the back half of the tank. I have throttled down my main return pump to almost nothing, and that helped, but I hate to slow down my tank turnover this much. Should I think about placing some rock in the front of the tank? My returns are the standard ones that come with the Oceanic tanks and have not been modified in any way. Thanks for your help. I found this site about a year ago. Had not had a tank set up in four or five years but this site definately fired my addiction back up.

 

[Tremelle]

How are your powerheads arranged? I had a problem with the sand thinning out in the front corners. I had to reposition the two powerheads that were directed to the front and point them off center to the front. Now they are aimed at the side glass and don't now thin the front corners. You may just need to play with powerhead positioning.

 

[zt allstar]

I agree with Tremelle, play with the powerheads. I found if you lower the powerheads closer to the bottom and have them directed to the surface it doesn't blow the sand around as much.

 

[Snook65]

Thanks for the replys, which I will try tomorrow, but I believe my main problem are my dual returns being too powerful. Don't know if I will have to do away with the standard returns that came with the Oceanic tank and custom make something that will let the water spread out with a weaker flow that doesn't disrupt the sandbed as much. Thanks again.

 

[Tremelle]

In what direction are the returns pointing? How wide, from front to back, is your tank? Also how far from the sand surface are the returns?

 

[jdeets]

The previous posters pretty much have answered your question--just point the returns in different directions and experiment. One thing you need to remember, however, is that depending upon what livestock you have, your DSB will never stay completely level. Mine has a big hole right in the middle where my gold-striped maroon clown digs, and a big mountain in the middle where the banded goby spits out the sand he has removed from his "house" under the LR. I've given up on having a level DSB and instead just enjoy watching the antics of the fishes...

 

[Chucker]

The solution might be as simple as putting some larger grained substrate or rubble in the turbulent spot.......