To sand or not to sand.

I went the BB route.
I like the NNR benefits of a DSB, but that's about it.
Sand looks good on the bottom when it's new and clean but almost every tank with sand I've seen locally starts to look dirty after a while and is more aesthetically unappealing to me than bare glass.
I get to see the detritus that collects on mine (yes, even with lots of flow - two tunze 6100's) and can't imagine letting that collect unseen on a DSB.
Since I can see mine, I just siphon it out every so often.

I spend my time looking at my fish and coral, not the sand.
 
I picked up a Diamond Goby to clean the sand for me. I've had it about 6 months now. It keeps my sand looking like new.
 
s10willy, do you have your tank covered? I bought a diamond goby not too long ago and in less than 2 days he jumped. I even had the egg crate stuff on top and he jumped through that and landed on top of it. I've never been able to keep a jawfish / goby for more than a few weeks.
 
I've got a canopy that is open in the back. The goby was in the tank for less than fivrminutes when it decided to up and out the back. I already had some mesh set aside for this since I lost a lawnmower blenny a little before, so I went ahead and attached that to the back with a slight overhang back into the tank. No casualties since.
 
Sand huh

Sand huh

I read a very interesting article in AFM by Harker. He said no more than an inch, also he had some great tips on rock placement. Personally it looks like a shallow bed for me and my usual very little rock.
 
I would like to read that also. I'm putting starboard down and just using a thin layer of sand, just can't bring myself to go bare bottom.
 
dan try egg create wrapped in screening and supported by pvc 1/2 " underneath. I believe its called a plume or flume. I used one when I first started reefkeeping because the guy who thought me recommended one. I no longer use one but it did allow me to get an appearance of a dsb w/o alot of sand. It also created an anaerobic environment for those beneficial bacteria. You can pm me if you want more details. Starboard is EXPENSIVE
 
well its not the typical under gravel filter because there are no pumps sucking flow through it. Its just a dead spot. I have seen no difference between having it and not having it
 
I use a plenum system now per garf.org's specs. I've had good results with it but I don't like the fact that you can see the substrate up above the trim on the bottom of the tank. That's why I was gonna go with a thin layer of sand to be flush with the black trim. As far as the price of starboard, it'll be about 50 bucks for the two pieces which compared to some of the other expenses is a drop in the bucket. Thanks for the tip though
 
Hey check out the DT's website they have a artical in there about the benefits of the DSB. It was really good.
 
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