Sand bed

[KyleP]

I have a sand bed that has been in place for a little over a year. Its about 3 to 3.5 inches in most areas. I have read that having a sand bed between 1 inch and 4 inches is nothing but a detritus trap and causes more problems than benefits. A sand bed over four inches provides benefits. Well, I'm not going to go over four, so I'm thinking about siphoning out enough to get down to about and inch. Is this a good idea? Thanks for any advice!

Kyle

 

[ctenophors rule]

your sand houses loads of beneficial bacteria, and it does provide benefits.

if you have enough benthic organisms, and you feed right, your sand bed wont become a detritus trap.

imo, you would be better keeping it

 

[Briansweber]

Sand bed

Yea there are a bunch of anarobic bacteria at the bottom of the sand bed that will help break down unwanted stuff I think nitrate. Also the bed will slowly desolve letting new nutrients get into the water, the acididy level is higher in the bottom.

 

[Briansweber]

where there's no oxygen.

 

[Briansweber]

If you do decide to get rid of it despite the benefits I would defenitly recomened syphoning opposed to digging it out, because there is a gas in the bottom and if it is relleased into the tank it could potentially hurt your corals.

 

[ctenophors rule]

the gas usualy accumulates in larger sand beds (from what i have heard, i believe it is hydrogen sulfide, and is only created in arobic zones)

however i would still recomend, just in case, slowly siphoning, a half inch or so off weekly, if you decide to do it.

 

[seesick]

def siphoning it off, but take it slow, the last time I broke down a tank with a sand bed I could smell the sulfur, did not know that it was hydrogen sulfide nasty. The sand bed was 5-6in deep and had been setup for years. Since then I have gone bare bottom and its been working great for me. good luck.

 

[fsn77]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=14925085#post14925085 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by seesick
def siphoning it off, but take it slow, the last time I broke down a tank with a sand bed I could smell the sulfur, did not know that it was hydrogen sulfide nasty. The sand bed was 5-6in deep and had been setup for years. Since then I have gone bare bottom and its been working great for me. good luck.

Was there a particular problem or set of problems that made you want to change from a DSB to BB that you're no longer having since changing to BB?

 

[Fragman2]

I have been running sand beds, Plenums, and Bare Bottom tanks for 20 years. I have one of each currently set up. If I had to chose , I'd go with the sand bed. Oh ya, the depth of the sand bed and what happens at that depth is highly dependent on the sand particle size. Larger particles allow more water movement up and down through the bed and therefore a greater depth is needed to get an anerobic bottom layer. If you use fine sand particles you can get an anerobic layer developing in as little as 2 inches of sand. Its all about oxygen penetrating the sand layers. Now throw in some sand sifters???

 

[ctenophors rule]

aren't anarobic zones home to bacterium that produce nasty nitrogenous chemicls like nitrite and nitrate?

i need to glance through "the new nitrate theory" again

 

[hottuna]

look at paul b's thread on new nitrate theory - I second everything mentioned there...I have a 30 gal tank with one inch or so oolitic sand on the bottom -4 large fish that eat like pigs-an emperor 400 with BIOWHEEL (should be a nitrate factory) ,,,and my nitrates are allways zero or near zero with no water changes for months...

 

[therealfatman]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=14913937#post14913937 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Briansweber

If you do decide to get rid of it despite the benefits I would defenitly recomened syphoning opposed to digging it out, because there is a gas in the bottom and if it is relleased into the tank it could potentially hurt your corals.

The gas is only created when there is nitrate present but no dissolved organic carbon compounds (DOC) for the bacteria to use for energy. When there are no DOC's the bacteria turn to sulfur compounds for energy thereby releasing hydrogen sulfide. IMO This is more commonly a problem where there is a high nitrate level in the tank (over stocked and over fed) and critters living in the sand.

A 10 cm/s water velocity over sugar sand usually means a oxygen environment down to only about 1-1/2 inch. That increases with larger grain sizes and due to tunnels made by critters.

 

[Gary Majchrzak]

Re: Sand bed

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=14913198#post14913198 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by KyleP
I have a sand bed that has been in place for a little over a year. Its about 3 to 3.5 inches in most areas. I have read that having a sand bed between 1 inch and 4 inches is nothing but a detritus trap and causes more problems than benefits. A sand bed over four inches provides benefits. Well, I'm not going to go over four, so I'm thinking about siphoning out enough to get down to about and inch. Is this a good idea? Thanks for any advice!

Kyle

in your case I think it's a good idea, Kyle.
I definitely wouldn't add more sand to the display aquarium- if you want a DSB go with a remote one. JMO

 

[aquaboy620]

well I just removed 6 x 5 gallon buckets full of sand from my 240 gallon reef and it was nothing but detritus in it. my sand bed was 4 to 5 inches before and is at 1/2" to about 1" in different places. mostly 1/2". unfortunately I didn't have a siphon so I used a brine shrimp net and alot patience and changed out my filter socks 3 times within the 3 days that it took me to do this. I tend to overfeed ( completely my fault ) but my fish love me for it. the bad part is my nitrate was at 20 ppm when I finally tested my water after 3 years of running. I know it was sand causing this because since I removed the sand my nitrates started dropping. slowly but surely. I haven't changed my feeding habits even though I should. I just did this over the past weekend and haven't lost anything because of this and have seen certain corals start opening up again. But if i could do it all over again i would have siphoned it. so if you decide to go with a DSB you better take care of it wisely or you will be sorry. trust me cause i was. to all the people that are gonna say something bad about what I did and my maintence on the tank I changed 30 to 40 gallons a week for about 2 months and my nitrates stayed the same and that is why I started to remove the sand.