Who has had a sand bed for more than 3 years?

[Quiverfull]

Just curious about long term sand bed with an sps tank? My LFS guy swears that all sand beds will essentially result in a crash in about 3 years despite daily stirring, vacuuming etc. what has been your experience and if you have had the same bed more than 3 years, what is your maintenance of routine?

 

[Bigcefa]

Your local fish store guy is full of crap I can tell you that much. I maintain tanks going on 8+ years same sand

 

[Jade5051]

I'm calling BS. Sounds like an old school bare bottom guy. No offense to you bare bottom guys but at one point in the hobby there were hardly any sand beds out there. Bare bottom certainly works and Sand beds work too. It's really a preference. In my experience Sand beds essentially never go bad. I have have some that were 5 years old. I rarely vacuum them once every 6 months or even a year. Really only when I feel detritus is building up and I can see my CUC is falling behind. Get a good sea cucumber and nassarius snails.

 

[donald altman]

I've had a 5 inch dsb for 8-9 years in my 100 gallon tank.

 

[Indymann99]

3in sandbed in my 120g for 10yrs.

I dont touch my sand bed. I have critters do the work. Nassarias (sp?) snails, hermit crabs, and Diamond Goby.

 

[fishdoc11]

I think it's funny the bare bottom guys are old school now. I remember when that was "radical" (of course it wasn't because the first Berlin system was BB) and the DSB guys were tried and true. Bottom line, no pun intended, is that both work. I personally have never had good luck with a sanded long term. Over the years I have learned BB just works better for me.

 

[Jade5051]

I think it's funny the bare bottom guys are old school now. I remember when that was "radical" (of course it wasn't because the first Berlin system was BB) and the DSB guys were tried and true. Bottom line, no pun intended, is that both work. I personally have never had good luck with a sanded long term. Over the years I have learned BB just works better for me.

That's what it's all about! Finding what works well for you! I want to do BB on an up coming build so I can view it from the bottom.

 

[33yrplus]

I've had 3" - 4" deep sand beds for 11yrs with no work other than a few cucs and nassarius. When I removed it to change the system around the amount of peanut worms was nightmarish. Also had a 3' long bristleworm in the rubble in the sump. Had nightmares about that thing!!! Thinking about it still creeps me out. LoL