starting new tank sand or bare

[anthonys51]

starting another tank, 180 gallons with 120 sump new tank. I was wondering should i go bare or add sand. also does anyone have a tank over 5 years old and tell me if you have sand or bare. wondering over time will sand cause more crashes when water changes arent done as vigilante

 

[puckett26]

I havent had the same tank for over 5 years but from the research I have done it comes down to two things, aesthetics and live stock. Some people prefer the look of sand while others dont mind it but enjoy the ease of cleaning. Live stock plays a role because of course you cant have a sand sifting goby without sand. I was in the same boat as you trying to figure out what I wanted recently but ultimately decided to go with a sand bed. At first I was going to go bare bottom because I actually like the look of coralline growing on the bottom and corals encrusting. But ultimately when I was coming up with my livestock want list, my desire for a Red Mandarin was greater then the desire for bare bottom.

 

[bundybear1981]

In my tanks I have sand bottoms, I just recently added sand to the only tank that was bare bottom solely because I prefer the look of sand. Its mostly a personal thing but a little to do with stocking list.

 

[anthonys51]

doesnt the sand make it harder to keep nutrients down. i want to keep sps in a heavily stocked tank with lots of fish. i found in my current tank its hard to do with sand. anyone have any luck keeping a lot of fish in a reef tank. dopes the bare bottom make it easier
or is it alot of fish or sps

 

[ReefsandGeeks]

I've had a deep sand bed, and kept nutients to undetectable levels with carbon dosing and a decent skimmer. It's a bit more challenging to get good flow over sand to kick up detritus without kicking up sand, but it can be done successfully if that's what you want. I prefer the look of sand myself, though I've seen some nice bare bottom tanks as well.

 

[toothybugs]

It's way easier to add sand than to remove it.

Plus you can hook up an RDSB to a bare bottom system and take it offline if you find you are having inexplicable nutrient issues.

 

[anthonys51]

think i will go bare. just i had my 57 up and running for 18 months. everything going well corals growing like crazy. then i over dosed calcium at month 19 and things have been going down hill since the last 5 months. basically every couple a week one by one a coral dies. sps just turn white in days my lps does come out one day and melt after a few days. only thing doing well is my max clam and fathead dendro and 2 hammers so far but who knows. i test for phosphates and to tell you the truth its either .03 or .1 hard to tell on test. but people tell me .1 wouldnt cause whole tank to crash, plus tank doesnt have an algae in it, i mean none

 

[DivingTheWorld]

For an SPS tank, I think bare is easier. I started with a thin layer of sand, but got tired of constantly blowing the sand off my rocks and corals. Since I went bare bottom about 6 months ago it's much easier. I can have the pumps turned way up and everything stays cleaner and easier to manage.

 

[anthonys51]

i would think blasting the bottom would keep things clean and easy

 

[madweazl]

Shrimp gobies are too cool to go bare bottom!

 

[anthonys51]

Shrimp gobies are too cool to go bare bottom!

:0 my watchman goby is pretty cool too, i can even hand feed him