25g Mid-Week Detritus Export Video

[Reef Pilot]

Originally Posted by RuGlu6

You are correct it only looks clean.
I always end up replacing or getting rid of the sand because it gets full of detritus. No meter how much i like the sand if i don't get rid of it in a year or so it always get foul. I never put more then an inch also, And i have about 100x+ water flow in my display tank without counting a return pump flow.

I've been following this discussion, as I am in the process of redoing my upstairs display tank, and need to decide whether to go BB or a thin layer of sand.

Currently, I have about 3 inches coarse sand, and no question it collects a lot of detritus. I vacuum the sand bed regularly, but much of it is inaccessible under the rock. I have high nitrates and phosphates (although lowered recently with bio pellets), and I think this is the main reason.

However, I do like the look of the sand, so at the moment am leaning towards having a thin layer, just enough to cover the bottom, and see how that works.

Another consideration, might be that the sand contributes to the nitrogen cycle, just like the live rock, and eliminating that may reduce the capacity of my tank to manage the bio load with fish and feeding.