Sand Bed Vs Bare Bottom

usmcsgt

usmcsgt

Premium Member
I am in a big debate in my head right now, I cant decide weather or not to go bare bottom or sand again, this would happen when I tear down for a near future move. I've just been thinking that my sand bed is just holding all kinds of crap in it or I may be wrong and its got all kinds of good stuff in it. What are all your Opinions?
 
I just removed my 1-2" sand bed from my 120. I have a mostly SPS tank and within a couple days I started getting color back from corals that were browned out. I'm not against sandbeds at all, however. I believe they work if they are set up right and maintained correctly. For me, my tank is 4 years old and about 3 out of those 4 years, I didn't take care of the tank like I should have. So under my rockwork, the sandbed was full of all sorts of bad stuff. I do recommend if you do go bare bottom, be sure to have a lot of flow and a good skimmer to pull all the nasty's out. Good luck to ya!
tom
 
Thats what I was looking at, if I go bare bottom I will go ahead and drill my closed loop so I can have a couple returns lower in the tank to keep stuff up off the bottom.
 
Re: Sand Bed Vs Bare Bottom

if you set up a deep sandbed make sure to research doing a DSB in a bucket or remote sandbed. Sandbeds can be useful, but (IMO) DSB's inside the main display are no longer an attractive option.
 
well i would say its a matter of taste if you like the look of sand then do it but be aware that maintenance is required. if you do bb tank make sure you keep strong flow. it seems that a tank dominated by sps seems to prefer less sand. in a reef corals grow away from sand. also flow restrictions will be in place because of sand storms. but certain animals require or prefer sand so keep that in mind as well.
 
A sand bed is pretty, even if you have like 1/4 inch of sand. I personally don't like the look of a tank that is bare bottom. Your choice though so choose something that you will be happy with.

A lot of the sps guys are going barebottom so if your going sps, then maybe ask the guys on the sps forum why you should go barebottom but you aren't then I don't see how a sand bed will hurt you. A good skimmer, water changes, and some sand stirring critters will make your sand clean and not filled with junk.
 
The sand is a collector of mud... unfortunately any worms and snails won't eat it. I had DSB in my previous system, but now I'm setting up BB nano cube.
 
the thing people dont realize is that on the coral reef sand never sits in one spot it moves around a lot. One day its in hawaii, the next year it made it to austrailias reefs, and all of its detritus with it. Our tanks beds dont function like this at all.

Even where sps corals are predominant, the water is so strong that sand does not stay put. Its called the reef crest. Closer to shore, with alot less sps, is sand and algae, especially eel grass and caulerpas. I wonder why? Because its the sand supplying lots of nutrients to the plants(ie-detritus)

This is why my tank is bb :)
 
I've been proponent of BB for quite some years. So easy to remove detritus. With plenty of live rock and skimming, the need for DSB for denitrification is minimal. I've found with BB, algea outbreaks are minimized as well. This is directly related to detritus removal. I experimented with DSB for about 3 yrs and went back to BB. Don't forget, your BB will get encrusted with coraline and look beautiful. Only drawback is you won't be able to keep some animal that require sand. Both methods work and have different maintenence issues, just pick the one that works best for you.
 
post-489-1158314362.jpg


This detritus was produced in the new BB tank by 2 fishes (yellow tang and maroon clown) and 6 shrimps. All the process took only 7 days!
 
FWIW, if you check the SPS forum, theres a whole lot of reefers who have gone BB, and then added sand back to the tank because they weren't happy with their colors.


Also, when I went from my DSB to BB, I had almost no rock shedding. If you're having lots of shedding, it just means your DSB tank didnt have nearly enough flow. Your tank failed because of improper equipment, not the DSB.
 
I've compromised by having a 1/2 to 1 inch sand bed for esthetic reasons. I siphon the detritus from the sand regularly. The sand sifters in my tank still seem healthy, and the tank bottom looks natural.
 
Well Bombers tank won my attention. Those reefers with poor colors probably are lacking food that sandbeds produce(detritus, pods, nitrate/phosphate) the key to fixing this is to balance out everything. The ocean is not without sand, therefore a small sandbox in tank may be required.

Bombers bb tank: One of my favorites.
<a href="http://photobucket.com" target="_blank"><img src="http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y178/salwaterfish123/bomberstank.jpg" border="0" alt="Photo Sharing and Video Hosting at Photobucket"></a>
 
Re: Re: Sand Bed Vs Bare Bottom

Re: Re: Sand Bed Vs Bare Bottom

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=10539987#post10539987 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Gary Majchrzak
if you set up a deep sandbed make sure to research doing a DSB in a bucket or remote sandbed. Sandbeds can be useful, but (IMO) DSB's inside the main display are no longer an attractive option.
Click to expand...

What is your reasoning behind your opinion?
 
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