Sand beds: What do you need and why.
 

So, again the topic of sand beds comes up. Here's my take. I started in this hobby 10 years ago, when the DSB was the rage. I started my 75g with about a 5" DSB, using the new and wonderful oolitic sand. It was great. In very little time, I had a fully stocked SPS tank, no measureable NO3, and things were growing like crazy. For a while. Actually, pretty long while. But, about 4 years into the tank, things started going bad; wafer algae, valonia, all kinds of stuff I couldn't ID. Then dinos. That was fun. It was suggested that I swap out my sand, a third at a time. Well let me tell you, after the first third, I pulled it all immediately as I felt really bad for my fish. This sand was the worse smelling, foulest substance I've ever come across (at the time). I replaced it with about an inch of sand, and slowly, but surely, my problems cleared up.
Next wave: Suddenly, about 5 years ago, people started removing sand completely. OMG, you can't do that, what about nitrates. Well, I tried it, with a new setup, same 75g tank. I added about 65# of rock, 8000+GPH flow and away we went. SPS growing like crazy, colors were unbelievable and best of all, 0ppm NO3. Zip. Nothing. So, in my mind, good quality rock (as defined in a thread I posted within the last year) is as good as having sand, well, without all that yucky sand.
So, today. My current tank 90g, 125g sump, with 70# LR. I have added about 2" of sand, the courser stuff, just for appearance's sake. I have some diatoms (tank had a rough start) and I have a bit of clumping, not sure why yet, but still, my NO3 is 0. No, I haven't been using the same test kit for 10 years :)

To my point. Is having a sand bed good or bad? Is it good to look at, or is it serving a purpose, and if it's serving a purpose, what is it? No, please don't say it adds Ca, it really doesn't in any amount we care about. Is having a shallow bed bad, or just not as good as a deeper bed? Assuming a deeper bed is good at all.
Honestly, if I thought my rock would stay up, I'd pull the stuff tonight.

so what does everyone think about sand? Do you use it? If so, how much and for what purpose? If you don't, do you miss it? Why or why not?

Ok, go!

I have a sort of shallow bed, up to 4" in some spots where the flow is low down to 0" where the flow removed it all.
I have never had any problems that I could definitely point to the sand bed and say "you did it" and I really like the look of sand even when it won't stay where I put it :mrgreen:


*edit* I use sugar sand now. I've tried the coarser stuff and found I had problems with detritus settling underneath, with the sugar sand the detritus is larger then the sand (for the most part) and stays on top until water flow, fish or worms clean it up

Well I use a DSB both in my DT and in my fuge. To my understanding the DSB is all about Anerobic Bacteria that a Shallow SB wont have. Without getting into a bunch or reasearch etc apparently these Anerobic bacteria are good for our tank. Where I stray a little from the normal practice is in the fact that most say that a DSB is a do not touch zone. In other words, you should never disturb it because you will release all sorts of nasty stuff into the water column and mass death will occur etc... Well It is regarded in some circles that these DSB eventually become plugged with all kinds gooky stuff leading to Old tank syndrome, algae, phosphates etc. Hence this is the source of your smelly sand etc Aqquatro? Some current thinking, which I am currently following, is to regularly stir up small areas of your DSB everytime you do a water change. Say no more than 10% by surface area, this will release all the trapped detrius, SO2 bubbles etc into the watercolumn but not in amounts enough to do any harm. Thus renewing the sand bed and removing some of the nasty stuff that gets trapped there. My fish actually seem to enjoy it as I am sure that I am releasing little bugs too within the small dust storm I create. Anyways, not saying what is right or wrong, Its just the course that I am currently following.

Had the 4-6" DSB for ~3 years, had some cyano when starting but could have been me just starting, using tap water etc, but did clear up. When I moved and dumped the sand, didn't smell much different than my water does now. Really it smelt fine.

When I set up the current tank did BB with the plan of adding either a SSB (1-2") or a DSB later but the BB sort of grew on me so never bothered. Now years later with the coralline people will come over and I'll mention the BB idea and they'll say didn't notice there was no sand.

Personally, do have to say I like sand the best for the looks plus the extra diversity to what you can keep over a BB, just not enough the add a bed myself.

I would also say I have a shallow sand bed. It varies from 1" to over 4 inches deep depending on the sand dwellers. I have a couple of critters that seem to do a great job of stirring up the sand.

A dragon goby lives under the rocks and is constantly moving sand around. He sucks it up in his mouth and blows it out from under the rocks creating large mounds. When I clean the inside of the glass I purposely level the mounds and he starts again from scratch!

I also have a cat's eye snail that moves around under the sand. Sometimes he surfaces and climbs the side of the tank, takes a peek out of the water and then heads back down under the sand. I had not seen him for weeks, and assumed he had died but he resurfaced last week alive and well!

All I think a sandbed is good for is aesthetics and burrowing places for Gobies and Jawfish and such. As long as your rock is functioning properly, there is no reason to have sand otherwise. Personally, I like the aesthetics of sand, and I like Gobies and Jawfish, so I have sand in my tank - about 1 1/2". ;)

When I moved from my 3yr old 75g up to my 175g I decided to replace the sand because that was the thing to do. After all the livestock was moved and I went to clean out the 75g, the sand (approx 3" deep) had no smell and was as white as could be I wished afterwards that I had kept it

I also rode the DSB bandwagon and I had very little success with it. I was really successful at growing algae but then I've always been good at growing algae though so I can't say that it was the result of having a sandbed. However after battling dinoflagellates after a year, I restarted my tank twice. The first time was because I was using the coarser grade of sand (not the oolitic, the other stuff) and I was "supposed" to be using the oolitic, and it was "supposed" to be shallow. That would definitely cure my dino problem, it was my "old" sandbed (3 yrs old) that was causing the issues. The tank lasted 4 weeks before I could clearly see the tank was having issues again: there were incredible piles of grey detritus building up on it. Then I heard people were going without DSBs. I figured what the hell, I was almost out of the hobby anyways so I yarded that sandbed out as well.

Since that day in 2004 I have had nothing but success in keeping corals. Ya ya I've had various other issues mostly from stupidity/faulty equipment/more stupidity but my corals keep on growin after they recover from whatever stupid thing I've done to them.

I would definitely put myself in that category of people who just can't have a tank with a sandbed. I love the look but my tank would have to be a glass box full of rock and water. No corals and no fish for me to be "successful" with it.

As for the anerobic zone, some say 4 inches is enough some say 6 inches. Personally I don't think the anaerobic zone in a sandbed is "healthy" (but then again theres all sorts of critters worming around in it) and most of the nitrate reducing activities can certainly take place in the rock. And they do or my tank would be full of nitrates because my fish eat like pigs and crap like a herd of cattle :razz:

pretty much bang on for me. 2'" normally and less or more depnding on flow. i had 2 sandsifters and 2 snails in there and i have no need to stir. after one tear when i did the rebuild i pulled 100% of my sand out and it smelled fine. also had a jawfish.

Edit** Also when i tore my tank down i used sand from exhisting tank to set up temp tank. peeled small layers with a net and put directly into tank fish were currently in. 10 G. so i think 2" is more than enough(imo).

DSB need to be maintained and if that is done right there is no smell.
It should stay white and clean, but this requires maintenance.
Stirring the sand a bit ones in a while by hand or with animals feeds the corals organics, nutrients, and plankton. There are organisms living in the sand that most of us will never see as most come out at night. All this is beneficial to the full environment maintaining a complete ecosystem.
Live sand also provides micro fauna that provide food for the fish and inverts.
Worms ,mollusks,and tiny starfish are like earth worms to the gardener.
I have lots of sand in my tanks :biggrin: