Sand beds: What do you need and why.

[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!!

[Lance]

I saw an interesting thread somewhere not too long ago, (maybe on RC). Anyway, the guy had cut plexiglass the size of the bottom of his tank. He sprayed styrofoam (the safe kind) onto the plexiglass and shaped it into little ridges and hills. Then while it was still wet he covered it with a very thin layer of sand, small pieces of rock, etc. When dry, he placed it on the bottom of the tank and then aquascaped with live rock and corals. It looked quite realistic and had none of the problems that comes with DSB. It is like having a BB tank but looks like it has a DSB. He just blows the detritus up into the water column. I'm seriusly considering this when I set up my 225 FOWLR.
I have coarse sand and crushed coral in my 90 gal reef; about 2-3 inches deep. There are things I like and don't like about it. It's easier to keep in place than the finer sand, but IMO doesn't look as good as the fine stuff. The 90 is 9 months old so I haven't really had any issues yet. I give it a bit of a stir from time to time and that's about it.

[fkshiu]

Originally Posted by Lance

I saw an interesting thread somewhere not too long ago, (maybe on RC). Anyway, the guy had cut plexiglass the size of the bottom of his tank. He sprayed styrofoam (the safe kind) onto the plexiglass and shaped it into little ridges and hills. Then while it was still wet he covered it with a very thin layer of sand, small pieces of rock, etc. When dry, he placed it on the bottom of the tank and then aquascaped with live rock and corals. It looked quite realistic and had none of the problems that comes with DSB. It is like having a BB tank but looks like it has a DSB. He just blows the detritus up into the water column. I'm seriusly considering this when I set up my 225 FOWLR.
I have coarse sand and crushed coral in my 90 gal reef; about 2-3 inches deep. There are things I like and don't like about it. It's easier to keep in place than the finer sand, but IMO doesn't look as good as the fine stuff. The 90 is 9 months old so I haven't really had any issues yet. I give it a bit of a stir from time to time and that's about it.

If I recall, the fake sandbed looked good for a few weeks and then got covered by more and more blotches of coralline. Seemed to be a lot of work for something that would only look neat and tidy for a short period of time.

[Canadian]

I too did the DSB thing about 10 years ago. I followed "the Godfather's" (Ron Shimek's) gospel and did not disturb my sandbed. Things looked great for the first 1-2 years usually and then I would start to see obvious signs of accumulating organics and start running into problems. My response was to overhaul the tank including the sandbed and start fresh. Eventually I took a hiatus from the hobby for a few years when I had to move for school and vowed that when I returned I would never have a DSB again.

About a year ago I started up a nano SPS dedicated tank. I decided I'd try a SSB for aesthetics. That experiment lasted about 1 month before I got sick of seeing detritus accumulating in the sand despite copious amounts of nassarius snails and hermit crabs. When I moved my tank to Victoria I went BB - things were basically glorious. I then moved my tank when we moved into our new place last month. Under the influence of my fiance I added sand in the form of a SSB when I set the tank up again. I loved the aesthetic it supplied. I hated the organics it trapped. But, hey, I'm a guy and women make us do stupid things even when we know we shouldn't do them. Two days ago I yanked all the sand again and I will now remain BB for eternity unless someone comes up with some new fangled method of husbandry and some convincing explanations to get me to change.

I frequently read DSB proponents say that in a SPS dedicated tank you can still have a DSB as long as you're creative with your flow patterns. I don't want to compromise on the growth and color of my corals if I don't have to. I don't want to have to be creative with flow patterns when it would be easier to just blast away to my heart's content. With a BB I don't have to compromise and I can have what would be considered obscene numbers of fish with excessive feedings and still have to add amino acids to keep rich colors in my SPS. Personally, I would way rather have to add organics to my tank in a controlled fashion in order to keep nice colors than have to worry about how they are being sequestered, utilized and removed. But maybe that's just the control freak in me.

[banditpowdercoat]

I have a SSB, for 8 months now. keep getting green algae growth on the front of the tank where the room lights shine on it. Makes me mad. Keep scraping the algae film off, only to have it come back a week later. Feeding less than half what I used to, lots more water changes too

npt sure if I like the work over the looks??

[midgetwaiter]

There's no questioning that a deep sand bed or plenum does a really good job at removing nitrates, the science behind it is pretty well understood. Where people run into problem is actually getting the thing to work right, too many people end up with it turning into a nutrient slough.

I'm not sure there is an easy answer answer to getting it working either. You have to have the right amount of critters working to keep it clean but you can have too much of them as well. Sometimes putting something like a cucumber or sand star in there just results in having all the bacteria you are trying to keep going eaten and you end up with a crash eventually. It's a delicate balancing act.

[Marlin65]

And needs to be seeded and maintained.
I think people get lazy and a bit bored after a number of years. They don't do as many water changes as they used to because the tank is running great after a few years.
Then the first place you will have problems will be your DSB.
So the problem is blamed there but in reality it is the husbandry of the tank that is the real problem.
My 2 cents.
I can't comment on running BB as I have always had sand. I just can't see how you would keep some fish happy without sand.

[chevyjaxon]

i have a 4" sand bed never given me a problem i have 150 lb LR in my 90 gallon tank and only feed 2 times a week

[Aquattro]

Originally Posted by chevyjaxon

i have a 4" sand bed never given me a problem i have 150 lb LR in my 90 gallon tank and only feed 2 times a week

How long has this been running, and why so much rock?