sandbed or no sandbed?

[luv4qt1004]

hey guys. im trying to add some sps to my tank but i have a fine grain sandbed. should i siphon out the sand?

ive been getting cyano issues these days and cant figure out what is going on. everything is normal when i test it and someone suggested it could be your sandbed.

what do you guys suggest?

 

[shaggy14]

If you have the equipment to maintain the tank with no sandbed then I would say yes. It all depends on your preference though. It's still weird to me to look at my tank with no sand, but I can have all the flow I want and not have sandstorms

 

[luv4qt1004]

yeah that is what im saying. what is the proper equipment to not have a sandbed? i have a skimmer, brs carbon/gfo reactor, calcium reactor. is there anything else i need?

 

[Joel A]

i subscribe to the BB method of reefkeeping... minus the bare bottom =).

I can't stand to look at it, so on my next tank i'm going to keep a very very shallow sandbed, (less that .5") and vacuum it all the time to get rid of the crud. A lot of people do this sort of thing, sandbed simply for the looks, and set up everything else like a bare bottom tank.

 

[Joel A]

basically with a Barebottom tank you don't want anything to settle on the bottom of your tank or sump. the idea is to keep everything in the tank in suspension in the water.... so in order to achieve this you need lots of flow, in both the display tank, and the sump. Lots of people even keep powerheads in their sump.

The thought is that if nothing can settle out on the bottom of the tank or sump, it wont decay and produce waste (no3/po4) .. instead, it will all get skimmed out or taken in by filter feeders. So a strong skimmer, and strong water movement are a must.

 

[TheMikey]

I'm currently using the shallow sandbed option in my nano. Love the look with none of the mess!

 

[imisky]

i was running BB but couldnt stand the look after a while. There was no maintenance but it just looked weird, so i added 0.5cm of sand, the caribsea speical grade sand and have loved it. All over spect of the tank was kept the same as when i ran BB

 

[cwegescheide]

I had a sand bed for years and occaisionally faught with higher nutrients. Since going BB I've had a lot more success.. It does take a little getting used to it though. Definatley tanks with sand look a lot more natural and appealing.

 

[toothman]

There is no doubt that a sand bed will cause cyano in my experience. I really do like a remote sand bed my tank really is more stable with a sand bed somewere. I would recommend taking most of your sand out except possibly a small amount in front, for show, and put a bucket of sand in your sump or refugium.

I have tried both methods. bare bottom and dsb, I now use almost barebottom with refugium, the refugium sand needs to be replaced about every 2 yrs.

 

[luv4qt1004]

wouldnt adding the sand to the sump be the same thing? wouldnt cyano still happen?

 

[tmantaylor18]

my sump is bb

 

[buy_baff]

Hmm it's funny that no one ever mentions crushed coral as a option. I use to have a very deep sand bed and after a few years it was a never ending headache cayno cayno cayno!!! I rebuilt my system with crushed coral and I love it! It is very easy to siphon and can handle a lot of flow without blowing around.
-Bill

 

[sfexplicit]

"I have tried both methods. bare bottom and dsb, I now use almost barebottom with refugium, the refugium sand needs to be replaced about every 2 yrs. "

why?

 

[toothman]

With sand in a tank it is a great denitrator, but it does have to be replaced about every 2-3 yrs. It is very easy to remove sand in a container. People with nitrate problems often do not have any sand, dsb tanks often are great, I just do not think you can maintain it for ever. A dsb is a anerobic bed, as time goes on it gets full of detritus and other organics making it a cyano grower.