BB Or sand Bed?

[kien]

Personally I prefer the look of sand to complete the look of a tank. Although I've seen some stellar bare bottom tanks too. I have had deep sand beds and would never have one of those again. They were a pain to keep clean and maintain. Currently I have a light dusting of sand about one half to 1" of sand as my sandbed. It's just there for aesthetics. It's easy to rake and keep clean and doesn't make as big of a mess whenever I need to replace it, which I do every 2 years or so. The powerheads do tend to push the sand bare in spots, but that doesn't really bother me. I just rake the sand back to cover the bare spot (if I can be bothered). My wrasses do stir up the sand whenever they go to bed or are just bored, but the sand cloud is only temporary so it doesn't really bother me.

[Koleswrath]

When I set my tank up 10 months ago I used 3-4" of oolitic sand as was recommended by the honor students at the LFS. I also succumbed to the recommendation to not disturb the sandbed.

Even with 5-10% water changes per week, basting the live rock twice a week, heavy skimming, light feeding(most of the time), etc, I still had a bit of a problem with algae and cyano.

I'm currently in the process of vaccuuming out about 5% of my sand per water change.

You should see the nice brown clouds of detritus I've been sucking up. I plan on replacing all the fine stuff with about an inch of heavier grained sand or crushed coral and vacuuming during waterchanges. I'd prefer bare bottom for cleanliness but I'm with those who like the look of sand.

Whatever you decide, keep it clean.


Greg

[banditpowdercoat]

Any Pics of various sand in tanks? I have to order online for my supplies, so its next to impossible to judge what I would like more visually by JL's web LOL