Sandbed or no sandbed, that is the question...

[MobyDick]

i think it's sand made out of faux....

Originally Posted by TheReefGeek

What exactly constitutes a faux sandbed?

[muck]

A faux sandbed would be a really thin layer of sand glued to the bottom of your tank.
Whether that be directly to the bottom glass or on a piece of starboard.
It gives you the look of a sandbed (kinda IMO) with the benifits of a BB tank.

[mr_alberta]

A fake sandbed is where sand is epoxied onto a surface such as glass or starboard. This gives the look of sand, but, since its all glued down, it also acts like a bare bottom tank.

FunkyFish14 should chime is as he as done it. I believe that Doug has also done it in his tank.

[mr_alberta]

DOH...dang Ryan...to fast

[TheReefGeek]

THanks. I have read of glued sandbeds for SPS reefs with high flow, didn't know that is what it was called though.

[bulletsworld]

Originally Posted by MobyDick

i think it's sand made out of faux....

It's your personal preference though. I like the sandbed myself but others like BB so who's to say.

I seen Harveys tank with the starboard and I was impressed actually.You almost though it could be sand. So to each their own.

[mr_alberta]

I remember a couple of people asking how I keep my sand "so flat" when I had starboard.

[Deathstar]

I think a reef tank looks much better with a sand bed. But that is just me

[prosnow]

i'm pretty sure i'm going to go with some sort of sand bed now, just not the sugar grain sand like last time, anyone got any advice on something a bit bigger thats not going to get blown around everywhere?????

[Funky_Fish14]

As an initial clarrification for future reference, so everyone understands the expression "faux sand-bed".... faux means false in french.

Yes, I shall chime in on this one, heh.

I currently have a faux sandbed in the bottom of my 75g reef. It has been in there since December. I used Envirotex-Lite epoxy(about... 3/4 gallon of it) mixed with sand, and layed it directly onto the glass. After it hard started to harden, I sprinkled a bunch more sand on top, to make sure I had the sand-bed look. I did this because the type of epoxy I was using is a poor-on high-gloss finish. You can choose to mix the sand in, and have a smooth topped clear, hard finish, with which you can see sand inside, or have the sand on top. The stuff I used was quite expensive mind you, 89.99 at the only place I could find it in the city.

I used to run sand in the system, and the difference in alk and CA levels is obvious. It was very easy to up flow, and I do not get sand blown all over the place, my sand-bed always stays in place, lol. I have a 32x turnover rate in the tank(per hour). Two seio 1100's mounted in the rear corners facing the middle of the front glass(the Maxi-jet for the refugium doesnt cause much water turbulence obviously). I have found that syphoning detrius out is almost as easy as with a BB, but its nice to still get the sand-bed look. Yes, I do have some corraline growing on the bottom, however I dont mind it. IMO, it doesnt look bad. I have never had anyone question my 'sand-bed', lol, unless they know about it in the first place.

I do have the tank about half full of SPS, which I find the fact I can have more flow quite beneficial. I also do have two clams, a squamosa and crocea, both on the 'FSB'(faux sand-bed), and there is still quite a bit of flow even under the crocea, and some by the squamosa, but this doesnt seem to affect their footing on the FSB.

Hope this helps, if you have any questions about it feel free to ask!

Chris