Advantages or Disadvantages of a Sandbed in SPS Tank?

[victornator333]

So Ive been considering the issues that come with a sandbed in an SPS tank.

The trapping of nutrients...
limitation of flow...

Any more disadvantages?

How about advantages?

Ive successfully kept SPS tanks with sandbeds but I am considering keeping my new one barebottom.

Need the barebottom folk to chime in here. Thanks!

 

[MammothReefer]

Eh, advantages it looks nice. Disadvantages if you have a shallow high flow tank or want to put sps on the bottom of your tank expect things to die because they get buried in sand. I always go back and forth but right now i'm the process of removing my sand from the front half of my tank. I'd rather my corals grow across the bottom.

 

[victornator333]

Can anyone vouch for sugarfine sand in SPS tanks?

 

[swanny]

I have the sugar fine in my new sps 120g. I can't vouch for long term since I just started a new sps but so far so good. I have an mp40 going as well and I have a few small sand storms but they clear quickly. The sand will eventually settle down once it "dirties" up a little. I personally love the look of a dsb with nice white sand, just my opinion.

 

[Allmost]

sand bed - more place for bacteria and ... to grow
bare bottom - no detritus settling.

sugar fine is good for deep sand beds, so u wont move it much.

if going iwth a shallow sand bed, sugar fine would be hard, cause siphoning it is much harder !

Id go one size bigger on the sand, and alot of flow. you can siphon it weekly with water changes.


as mammoth mentioned, a bare bottom, with an encrusting monti taking over the whole bottom would look amazing ! but would also take time for it to fill up the whole bottom

sand, would also give you more choices on fish and inverts.

 

[jnc914]

I currently run a bare bottom and I like the look and the ease of cleaning detritus during water changes. I can also ramp up the MP-40w and Tunze powerheads without sand flying all over. However, that lack of a sand bed may have attributed to a recent tank crash I experienced when I abruptly stopped vodka dosing. I had an ammonia spike and nitrate increase due to a massive bacteria die off. I firmly believe that if I had a sandbed filled with beneficial bacteria, it may have been able to counterbalance the effect of the die off in my live rock and water column.

 

[wakeboardgeek]

Can anyone vouch for sugarfine sand in SPS tanks?

I had sugar fine sand in my high flow SPS tank. The sand would blow everywhere until I added a little bigger grain sand. Maybe I should have had low flow before adding my SPS to allow bacteria to weigh it down. I eventually went BB for more flow.

 

[smokenax]

I run a 2-3mm grain shallow 1 inch deep,tank is pretty turbulent and
Sand stays in place. No detritus problem.

 

[slojmn]

I run a 2-3mm grain shallow 1 inch deep,tank is pretty turbulent and
Sand stays in place. No detritus problem.

ditto .
I had a bare bottom tank for four years and it certainly had advantages, lots of flow, no buried corals , and easy clean up. I really like the look of a sand bed and wanted to keep a variety of wrasses in my current tank so I keep a 1"-2" sand bed with mixed grain sizes, larger size on top to keep it from blowing around. I have 3 vortechs, 1 nano stream and the return with some good flow going on in the tank. I suck out sand periodically and replace with new sand to keep it rotating and healthy.