Sand bed to have or have not

pyton

pyton

New member
So I have always had some sort of sand bed in my tanks but with this latest build the local store talked me into going bare bottom. Since I want to keep wrasses I was told to just fill a plastic tub full of sand and let the wrasses use that to sleep.

I am just wondering if I should just put in a sand bed and call it a day. I do have a refug that has a deep sand bed in it but I wonder if that is enough.
What are your thoughts?

just trying to get the pros and cons. Also would like to know if I do go with a sand bed if I should go deep and just enough for the wrasses to sleep in?

Thanks for your opinions....
 
pyton said:
So I have always had some sort of sand bed in my tanks but with this latest build the local store talked me into going bare bottom. Since I want to keep wrasses I was told to just fill a plastic tub full of sand and let the wrasses use that to sleep.

I am just wondering if I should just put in a sand bed and call it a day. I do have a refug that has a deep sand bed in it but I wonder if that is enough.
What are your thoughts?

just trying to get the pros and cons. Also would like to know if I do go with a sand bed if I should go deep and just enough for the wrasses to sleep in?

Thanks for your opinions....
Click to expand...


Honestly this is going to be a standard cheesey answer but it depends on you.. I have always kept sand beds and can't imagine not having one in my tank.. I also run a DSB in the fuge with success. We have wrasses, but stick to fairy wrasses, flasher wrasses, and the families that don't use sand to sleep. All of our wrasses sleep in the rocks somewhere at night and not the sand...

It's really what you want!
 
I set mine up with about a 2" sand bed because I knew I would have wrasses, sea cucumber, serpent stars and sand dwelling snails. I even set my LR wall up on eggcrate that is set on 3" pvc pipe legs so it's above the sand. The front edge of the wall has some smaller LR in the sand to hide the eggcrate. LR doesn't settle or sit on the glass and I have the whole footprint of the tank bottom for sand dwellers. I also think I get better flow at the sand level and no dead spots. Maybe part of why I've never had any cyano issues.
 
I'm all for a 1- 2 inch deep sand bed for looks and maintenance.
Also more area for bacteria and lower level creatures is always a good thing.
BB ends up getting covered in algae/coralline/detritus and looks messy imo.
 
I've been BB for the last two years or so. I'm upgrading now and I'mgoing with sand after this. It looks better and I want the creatures that live in it.

If you do go BB, look into a "starboard" bottom. Bare glass is hideously ugly.
 
I am barebottom. Almost a year now. I miss my sand and my sand dwellers more an more. Adding sand is definitely in my future. But don't worry adding sand is much easier than removing it. So try it out see how it works for you. Then make an educated choice. And chose to add sand or just leave it bare
 
I had a bb nano sps dominate tank, just got a nice new sand bed. Looks so much better I disliked the barebottom. Plus the white sand seems to reflect more light and brighten up the tank.
 
Its personal opinion, but going the "extra mile" for your livestock, kind of goes out the window when you remove one of the base things they have in nature.

I think it looks a lot better as well :D
 
logan 12 said:
I had a bb nano sps dominate tank, just got a nice new sand bed. Looks so much better I disliked the barebottom. Plus the white sand seems to reflect more light and brighten up the tank.
Click to expand...

Holy Crap! You're from Mahomet? and you're 26, you didn't graduate from Mahomet in 05 did you?

Crazy small world lol
 
After having BB for 5 months I could not take it any more. I read up on it and posted this question only to add one bag to see how it looked. I cant live without sand!

Not going too deep just enough for Wrasses and critters to keep it clean.

One amazing thing is that my water is perfectly clear now that I added the sand. Took a few days but it looks great, makes the starfire glass worth it!
Thanks for the links they helped out a lot.
 
I'm also BB with my 4 month old custom 65g tank and I want to put sand in. Problem is I have algae growing on the bottom. What should I do - wait for algae to disappear or put sand over it??
 
I put sand over it, no light no growth....

If it heavy scrape it out next water change and then cover it.
 
so both. put in a plateau made of concrete, HDPE, Acrylic the depth of the substrate you want to keep. put all of your LR on top of this. have a powerhead or CLS outlets pointing down at the plateau to push detritus out from under the LR structure to get it to settle either in the sump, settling tank, skimmer, or in the substrate around the plateau. when needed you can replace the substrate without disrupting the entire system. you can replace small areas of the substrate or the entire thing every few years.

G~
 
I prefer the look of a sand bed, but I've never been able to put one in (SSB) without having it turn to concrete. I wish I could find a "fix" for that.
 
I considered BB when starting my tank but seeing the light and shimmer bouncing off my 1" sand bed sealed the deal for me, personal opinion only but a white sand bed under strong reef lighting just looks fantastic to me.
 
if you really want to keep wrasses you should incorporate a sand bed. the tub of sand isnt really going to be sufficient and its not going to leave that clean look youre going for with a bb.

i personally like the bb look over sand. ive gone back and forth and once coraline start to grow and you keep the bottom spotless, you cant beat it.. sand seems to lead to problems over time in my experience.
 
My experience and time in the hobby, over 35 years, has been negative with regard to deep sand beds. Flow to suspend detritus and critters to groom the bed are problematic in my view. The references listed above are mainly overviews without long term data to suggest that this method is practical for the general hobbyist. The authors do more to describe theory than prove true experimental design. While the deep bed may work in some circumstances I believe it is flawed for the most part due to a lack of nutrient export. These articles written earlier seem dated by most of my own practical experience. Especially with regard to SPS corals the method seems to me to be very unlikely to produce good results that I know many can achieve by careful care of minimal beds. To some the method may work, however, to many (I would argue most) it will not produce the expected outcome.
 
Having a BB or DSB will not automatically equal anything in terms of success. Someone that claims instant "zero problems" after ditching a DSB does not mean much if their maintenance stunk.

IMO....

DSBs can definitely work, and have benefits. But they are not dump in X hundred pounds of sand and walk away. You need to keep active life turning it over and make sure you are not feeding 5 gallon buckets of food at a time.

BB tanks are clean and sterile....they also look that way too. I'm sorry, but no sand bed at all looks like crap to ME. BUT...they are a snap for flow and keeping super clean.

My middle ground. I use shallow to medium depth sand beds. These are no "oolitic" grain, rather heavier, namely sea floor grade from caribsea or similar. Blow the sand around every few weeks to free up fish crap and waste. It looks great. If need be it can be sucked out in a second. 1"-2" is ideal, up to 3 " is ok.

Just like lighting or skimmers...do not get fixated too much on one area as the one and only recipe for success. Some of the most thriving tanks I have had have been ones going against what is popular.
 
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