Sand bed, Pros and Cons

[Beverly]

All three of my tanks are BB. The 37g is predominantly a monti cap tank, no fish/inverts. The 67g is LPS and softies, a pair of ocellaris and two cleaner shrimp. The 120g is all softies, 5 blue/green chromis and a dwarf angel I have yet to bring home. I have steered away from keeping fish that require sandbeds, cuz, well, I don't have any

Also, none of my tanks have skimmers, sumps or refugiums. I keep my nutrient levels down by keeping a smaller number of fish so I don't run into too many nuisance algae problems. I also keep macoralgae in each tank to eat up nutrients.

Have had my tanks BB since last summer. Would not go back to having sand.

[Funky_Fish14]

Question to everyone: Isnt our goal to replicate the natural conditions these animals live in as best as possible? I think mine is. I even put a sand bed in my coral propagation tank....though its only half an inch, its still there. It does help with bio-filtration, and I think it presents a more natural environment for everything in the tank. Also, it slowly re-leases calcium into the water which helps coral growth. I also think that what shadowboy said about the psycological well being of fish. Sure, your fish are doing fine without sand beds and eating off the bottom, but how do you know what the fish thinks of that? Maybe it would prefer to eat off sand. Its kind of like replacing all your carpet and hardwood floors in your house with gravel......how many of you would like that? I think its more natural, though some may think im wrong, but I know all of my tanks will have sand-beds. Im all for conserving natural ways.

Chris

[christyf5]

But what about those fish and corals that live on a rocky reef that goes for miles and miles??

Perhaps the fish would rather have the hardwood floors than a nice gooey algae enriched carpeting? (which is pretty much my sandbed about 95% of the time)

[Invigor]

if you're worried about psychological well being of your fish, why do you own fish in the first place?

I don't think there are strong enough pros/cons relating between a sand bed deep or shallow and barebottom to really make a difference to the fish.

I personally have a sand bed because -I- like the look of it. I don't really care if the fish like it or not..it's not up to them. I can't sit down and negotiate living quarters with my fish, so they'll just have to live with how I like it unless they start paying the bills.

[Aquattro]

Originally Posted by Funky_Fish14

Question to everyone: Isn't our goal to replicate the natural conditions these animals live in as best as possible?

My goal, as far as livestock goes, is to provide the healthiest environment for my livestock. I do this by providing the best water quality I can. I can provide better water conditions without the sandbed collecting crap. I've done it both ways, BB is easier to keep clean.

As for the fish being happy, well, leaving them in the ocean would make them happy. I see no behavioral differences with or without sand. I can provide more flow and get more natural growth patterns from my SPS. I've arranged rock so that I can add a large hammer for my clowns to host in. I have zoos and GSP, all doing well.

Now my overall goal in reef keeping is to have a really attractive tank that I'm proud of. That fell down with a sandbed that got polluted. Now that I've setup a new tank with a BB, I'm able to actually enjoy my tank for the first time in over a year.

Now I'm all for doing what you think is right for your tank, but many people with many years of experience are now doing away with DSBs for the same reasons I've stated above. You can use sand, and it will look nice and white and natural (is there really white sugar sand beds on reefs??) but in time, you're likely to find it starts giving back things you'd rather it didn't.

But hey, I had to find all this out the hard way, so please don't let me stop you from enjoying the same experiences!!

[Funky_Fish14]

Ofcourse they would be happier in the wild, but I guess opinions differ on the sand issue. Once I move out and end up in what I hope is a Permanent Home, I would like to build a VERY large reef(5000g or so) and my goal is to make this as natural as possible. Dont worry about $$ and time, thats for later lol. Anyways, I guess:

"Opinions are like @$$holes, everybody's got one"

Hehehe. I hope thats not offensive, but im just stating that I guess it will be hard for us all to agree on the SB thing.

IMO, Sandbed all the way(though I do see and understand some of the advantages of BB).

Chris

[Aquattro]

Originally Posted by Funky_Fish14

IMO, Sandbed all the way(though I do see and understand some of the advantages of BB).

Chris

Pretty sure if you dig up my posts from a few years ago, I said the same thing. So go with sand, we'll talk again in three years

[StirCrazy]

Originally Posted by Funky_Fish14

Question to everyone: Isnt our goal to replicate the natural conditions these animals live in as best as possible? I think mine is.

Chris

do you realy think that the entire ocean floor is sand???? I would hazord to guess that most of it is just plain old rock.

at any rate if you look in the middle of a large reef all it is, is rock and corals, and most of the critteres that live in that area have probably never seen sand, where the chritters that live on the edges have seen it, sooo.. how do you know if sand is realy natural for the fish you bought? Also there have been several pictures of Brains, ect atached to rock on coral reefs with no sand in sight, we just assume that they are sand critters, mine actualy has the scar on the bottom where it was broken off a rock when they removed it from the ocean.

Steve

[StirCrazy]

Originally Posted by reef_raf

Pretty sure if you dig up my posts from a few years ago, I said the same thing. So go with sand, we'll talk again in three years

and I was a DSB fanatic myself I can tell you that now that I have removed the sand bed, increased the flow while distrubiting it evenly throught out the tank I have 1/10th of the problems I had befor.

Steve

[Fish]

I beleive that the only reason to go with a sandbed is for aestetics or for keeping an organism with sand-specific requirements. I have done both and can tell you that a bb system will be a lot cleaner and healthier. I really don't see how having sand on the bottom of you tank is any more "natural" than having no substrate. The 1- X inches of sand that you have on the bottom of your tank isn't the ocean floor and doesn't function as one either. As for the fishes psycological well being, I'm sure that a lot of the reef fish we keep go their entire lives in the wild without having any contact with the ocean floor.
Having said that, I am planning on putting a fine sandbed in my nano. It probably won't be as healthy an environment as bb but I think it will look better in that small of a tank - JMO.

- Chad