Sandbed pool

[bshumake]

Hello there ladys and germs.
Richard, Charley, Robin (standing there all quiet and all) and I were talking last Friday about a sandbed pool. Basically for the next meeting everyone with a mature sandbed can bring a cup or so of their sandbed (bugs and all) and I will house it with more substrate. By our next meeting it should be pretty well developed that I would then split it up amongst all the members for sprucing up their beds, adding more life, and basically rejuvinating our sandbeds. If anyone is interested please let me know.

[Rendos]

I like the idea, but how do we make sure that we don't spread flatworms, red bugs, and other unwanted critters? Some people may have these in their tanks and not even realize it...

[just dave]

As to the Acro FWs,Nudis ,and RBs they will not live very long without their prey. So you would need to quarantine the sand bed a while. The red FWs that are more of a pest would be a problem. You could hit it with FW Exit but that stuff is not a sure thing.

[bshumake]

Good that you mentioned this Richard. Aside from the basic starvation that would have gotten rid of some of the larger pests, I had thought that a salinity drop would take care of the rest of the trouble. I wouldn't take it to far down but I had thought that bringing it up for a bit and dropping it pretty low for an equal amount of time would kill off alot of the blastocysts and larval stages of some problem bugs. I know that dormancy is a stage that lasts for quite a while, so I'm out on that one.

[Rendos]

I don't want to see this thread disappear...so i will bump it by saying that I will bring a cupful of sand from my tanks to the next meeting. This would also be a great way for those with new tanks to get some life started in their sand beds. I will donate my sand to someone new that wants it.

[bshumake]

I'll second that Richard. I'll bring a cup or two from my own tank.