need suggestions on changing sand bed

[ron101]

Ditto what everyone else said. Last January I was getting ugly algae problems and no coral growth with my 3 yo 4-6" DSB. Swapped it out for 2" of crushed coral which gets a good vacuuming monthly; tank has never been better.

Of course hindsight is 20/20 but given my experience with a DSB I would say that they are a poor choice for nutrient control in the home aquarium. Adding detrivores actually adds to the bio load and it is next to impossible to tell if they are helping with nutrients (after all nothing is being removed from the system). Since one should be doing water changes anyways, manual removal of detritus via syphoning (coarser grain substrate or bare bottom) is IMO a much more sound approach.