Sand bed, Pros and Cons

[Willow]

most ocean floors ive looked at are mudlike not sandy.

[Troy F]

Originally Posted by Willow

most ocean floors ive looked at are mudlike not sandy.

From what I saw in Hawaii, anywhere there were corals it was a sand bottom.

[Funky_Fish14]

Well, whatever the case may be, I've only been in this for 7 months so what do I know? Hehe.

Reef_raf, I will let you know once I decide my final opinion(well opinions are never final) on SB or BB.

However I just thought about it, I do need a SB in my tank, because:

A) My scooter blenny sleeps in it
B) My engineer goby burrows through it
C) My fungia Needs it
D) (not really valid reasons but) my clown sleeps on it leaning against a rock and my firefish uses the engineer goby's burrow as a re-treat and to sleep in.

I'll have to try a BB tank someday, but for now I think I'll stick with SB.

Quick Q. I find nassarius snails useful, and I have some in my 33, and soon to have some in my 15 I just set-up. I know they are in the sand bed most of the time, and come out when they sense food, but what do they do in a BB tank, or do you just not put them in one? Thanks.

Chris

[StirCrazy]

Originally Posted by Funky_Fish14

Quick Q. I find nassarius snails useful, and I have some in my 33, and soon to have some in my 15 I just set-up. I know they are in the sand bed most of the time, and come out when they sense food, but what do they do in a BB tank, or do you just not put them in one? Thanks.

Chris

don't buy them as they are not needed, for the record I found them to be a waist of money.

Steve

[danny zubot]

Not that I'm trying to defend or dispand any theory, I haven't quite decided on the issue yet. I just need to clarify something.

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.

In fact 80% of the denitrification process of a sand bed occures in the first 3/4 of an inch of sand. If you were to ask me if a sand bed is the most efficient way to denitrify water I'd say no, water changes are. The ocean doesn't have that option though. If you asked me if a tank would stay cleaner without a sandbed I'd say yes. I haven't experienced the issues many others have in keeping a sand bed clean. I've always focussed on having a big reef crew. Ask me on moving day what I'm going to do and I'll still be undecided I'm sure.

[Aquattro]

Just some info on Nitrate...even without a sandbed, my NO3 levels are undetectable. The rock alone does a good enough job, so NO3 rduction isn't a good reason for sand either.
Really the only good reason to add sand is because you like the way it looks. A nice white sand bed does look nice, but I just did a water change, and the sludge I was able to suck off the BB for only a week gave me 2 5g pails of very dirty water. I'd hate to have that building up in my sand bed.
IF you do go for a sandbed, I'd use a gravle vac to keep it clean.

[rickjames]

I will throw my 2 cents in here. Over the weekend I moved my 30 Gallon with a 2 inch sand bed. I always hated the sand just because I couldn't do anything about the buildup of detritus and I couldn't clean the glass to close to it or I would create a sand storm. So after I had all my fishies and corals into coolers and all the water out for the move, I decided what the hey, out with the sand, in with the BB tank!

Now that I have the tank setup and all the occupants back in, I think the tank has never looked better, and everyone who has come by the house agrees! The corals have better polyp expansion, and I find that my 10K MH light looks bluer without the sand bed. I also find that it puts more emphasis on the corals and the rock as the bottom no longer attracts any attention. I was also able to bump up the water flow to about 30X turn over, and the corals seem to like it.

I couldn't see myself putting a sand bed in a tank again.