Live sand question

How many pounds of sand would u recommend for a 48"l x 26d 90 gal tank?? Would u recommend aragalive?

48" x 26" x 1" would need 54.175 lbs

if you are going shallower then at 0.75" = 40 lbs.

It's an easy calculation, taken that the specific gravity of sand is approximately 4 times that of an unboiled egg, allowing for the curvature of the egg and the resultant space between eggs when placed touching covering a surface of 48" x 26".
Then an average chickens egg is 3" long by 1.5" diameter giving an Omega volume of 3 x Pi x 1.5 = X, where as 4X is the calculated volume due to the specific gravity of sand compared to a chicken egg.

[Of course if you are using a ducks egg then you have to factor the value of the above 4X(3.1472 x 0.69) for the fact that a ducks egg is far more circular than a chickens egg.]

By placing the eggs (be careful that the eggs are the standard large eggs, and not the extra large eggs, or you will have to factor 4x(3.1472 x 0.48) due to the extra volume of said eggs.
This equation does not work for Turkey eggs. Bantams and other smaller breeds should never be used in this type of calculation as the variance is outside probable deviation, even when considering "Schmeickels Southern Hemisphere Theory", which stated that birds in the southern hemisphere have eggs which have a lower specific gravity due to the alternate rotation of liquids when going down a plug hole, and that therefore eggs being a viscous material will also be affected by the southern hemisphere's counter anti-clockwise magnetic flow, creating a lowering of the specific gravity due to peristalsis of the fowls egg productive muscles expelling the said egg in a clockwise movement whilst in the body.

You will hopefully have noticed that I say "An unboiled egg". I say this for a reason. In an experiment carried out in 1978 by Ova & Ovum, famous Poultry breeding research pioneers, whilst in their Drunquen State University years, carried out an experiment using boiled eggs, thinking that the possible, or in their case, likely, breakages would not affect their data, due to the more consistent state of a broken boiled egg, over that of a raw egg.
What they discovered really let loose a stink within the research field, as they found that the boiled eggs, which had alas not been date recorded, had infact started to decay.
As you are already saying to your self, "that is rediculous, everyone knows that you have to keep a date of research material which is bio-degradable, as it has a limited life span!"... how right you are. However the research assistant, one Clarence Rhode Runer, (later declined his PHd paper application "Acme Corporation and it's destructive effect upon the natural history of the American wilds") had not been as observant as you or I.
The eggs had naturally built up with in their shells Sulpher Dioxide, resulting not only in a lowering of the specific gravity of the eggs (many of which were starting to float by this time), but also made taking reading near impossible due to the cracked eggs emissions.
As Ovum is recorded as saying "Who the hell dropped that one?"

Now should you be a cynic, you may wish to check my calculations by looking at this web site, which will confirm the relationship.....possibly.

http://www.safesand.com/calc.htm

Logically... she's a witch!

Lol. I'd go with 40lbs also. :-)

I'd pour 1 bag in. If it's not enough.. add more. Return any un-opened bags back for cash refund. Possible Beer money later, as the wife would assume this money was spent on sand. 60lbs will get you more beer money;)

+1 for jason lolz

So I put in 40lbs live sand last night and this morning it still had not settled. I stuck a powerhead in last night and heater to heat up water a bit and give sand time to settle then I read this morning somewhere it can take up to a week for sand to settle ?

Leave your heater on, but turn the powerhead off for 24 hours I would suggest. That will allow the finer parts of the sand and sediment to settle.
I know when I put mine in, and I tried to be careful too, that in the morning it was still looking like watered down milk.

If you have a hang on back filter used for freshwater put that on the tank. Run some carbon with a filter pad. Mine was clear the next morning.

+1

I forgot I also had an HOB on there too.

I have a hot magnum hang on and it will clean up the water in an hour or less. Its good to have one of these for emergencies anyway plus you can hang it on and stir up the ditritus and it will clean all the yuk out of the tank in short order, in my opinion, these are a must have for reef tanks.