Sand beds: What do you need and why.

[marie]

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


*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

[mark]

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.

[marie]

Originally Posted by mark

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 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

[Treebeard]

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!

[Myka]

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".

[ElGuappo]

Originally Posted by Myka

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".

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).

[Marlin65]

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

[EmilyB]

Don't stay up all night taking that sand out Brad.

[Aquattro]

Originally Posted by EmilyB

Don't stay up all night taking that sand out Brad.

Well, geez Deb, you coulda said that earlier!!

[Doug]

Brad, I added between 1 or 2in. of sand to my 90g. Its a larger grain size also or at least larger than the really fine bed. Just regular Carib-Sea, likely 1 -2mm in size.

Now dont ask me why . It looks purdy for now. As you know, I really am a bare bottomed fanatic. I was going to run a plenum in this tank but a few things turned my thoughts this way.

I,m prepared to siphon and replace some on occasion if thats needed to maintain it plus I plan on adding a lots of narcissus snails and some fighter conchs when the bed is mature enough for them. Its been close to 10 yrs, since I have run any sand in one of my tanks, so I guess we will see how it goes.

I may add I have never had any cyno since not having any sand. One sign of it and out it comes. Cyno and sand seem to go hand in hand.