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Originally Posted by Fish
The sand looked clean and white but once I emptied it out, the water inside the sand was green and reeked! That has to contribute to nitrates doesn't it???
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Ehhh ahhh ummm ... well this is the the rather pinnacle element of the whole debate isn't it. Unfortunately for the sandbed to process nitrates, it needs to have an anaerobic zone. And those are, well, putrid if you stir them up.
But without the anaerobic bateria to process the nitrates, then yes, that detritus can't help but add to the nitrates and phosphates.
For me, keeping my sandbed comes down to two things. 1) I like the look better. (Sorry.) 2) Not that I have any now, but there are some fish (and perhaps other interesting critters) who like a sandbed. When I had a fairy wrasse, he would sleep at night buried in the sand. Sometimes he would find a crevasse in the rock to sleep, but more often than not, it was the sand. .. Another example is a jawfish - also an interesting fish but requires a burrow in the sand to not feel stressed (a burrow in the rock might suffice, but it's not a "real" substitute for a burrow in the sand).
That said, some animals just make a nuisance of themselves if there's a sand bed to muck about in (Deb's trigger comes to mind).
So I guess it all comes down to circumstance! I haven't yet read any compelling evidence to convince me to throw away all my sand. The reasons for going BB seem reasonably sound, and it's that right for you then more power to you. But I still like my sand.
cheers