Sand beds: What do you need and why.

[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