BB Or sand Bed?

[spit.fire]

Originally Posted by Proteus

+1. I like the clean if BB and the look of sand. Tile was the middle

I went tile and used gravel as grout

[jason604]

What we're all trying to do is to mimic the ocean. What kind of ocean doesn't have sand? I have about 2-3'' Got a sand sifting fish so I don't have to worry about keeping the sand clean. He keeps it looking brand spanking new =). I got Fiji pink Carib

[jason604]

What we're all trying to do is to mimic the ocean. What kind of ocean doesn't have sand? I have about 2-3'' Got a sand sifting fish so I don't have to worry about keeping the sand clean. He keeps it looking brand spanking new =). I got Fiji pink Carib

[jason604]

Originally Posted by spit.fire

I went tile and used gravel as grout

Can u show me a pic of what this looks like?

[Dearth]

I had sugar sand in my first tank had a ton of issues with it so when I upgraded I did half my tank in course sand and the other half in crushed coral both to 3/4 inch in depth and I like the look I no longer have sand all over everything and the fish/inverts that like sand can have their playground and on the crushed coral side I love the look of it and surprisingly a lot of my inverts love playing in it.

BB tanks have their advantages too but I am not a big fan of them myself but there are some damn fine tanks out there BB and are very drool worthy.

[banditpowdercoat]

If I was to add a sand bed, say 1.5" deep, can I add it all at once? Should I use Live sand, or dry? My tank is well established, going on 5 years now

[Aquattro]

Originally Posted by banditpowdercoat

If I was to add a sand bed, say 1.5" deep, can I add it all at once? Should I use Live sand, or dry? My tank is well established, going on 5 years now

There's no advantage to live, other than relieving you of all the extra money Just add dry and I would do it all at once. It's inert, so no reason to stage it.

[riceboy]

heres my 2 cents,

Pros -

I love the look of sand in a tank

Cons-

with 2 powerheads i ended up with all sand in the back and no sand in the front so pretty much ended up with bare bottom anyways.

tank crash when I siphoned the sand bed it had built up with amonia and nitrates (could litterly see bubbles and stuff come out of the sand)

sand getting blown into my lps

easier to see corals if they fell onto bb than in sand

needless to say my tank is bb right now in my new house lol

[Cal_stir]

2" of seafloor special, vacuumed twice a week, would't have it any other way.

[asylumdown]

I love the look of sand and fact that it creates an environment for all sorts of little critters to live in, but I'm very much of the opinion that recreating a 'natural' sand ecosystem in a teeny tiny little box is considerably more difficult than simply adding lots more of it than people usually do for visual appeal. As my tank has aged (between 1-4 inches of sand depending on what the powerbeads have done), all the problems I've seen with algae have started in the sand. I think they really do become clogged up with nasty stuff. Which makes sense - would you ever maintain a canister filter and never ever clean the foam?

I've recently decided to start fluidizing the sand to get some of that gunk out on a semi-routine basis, and so far it appears to be accomplishing what I want it to do (cyano has stopped growing back on the patches that I've fluidized) I would still not run a tank without it. The look of coraline covered glass is not something I enjoy.

We'll see if my new strategy solves more problems than it creates long term.