Adding sand to BareBottom

[nanoreef93]

Hey guys. I have a 14 gallon mixed reef. Its a full setup with amazing gear (dosing pumps, tank controller, Ai Prime, osmolater ATO, etc...) It's been running barebottom for the past 5 months. I pulled the trigger and added 1/2 inch of dry rinsed out fiji pink sand. Question is will a diatom bloom occur and will my water chemistry change)
.
Before sand
Calcium 460
Alkalinity 9.5
Magnesium 1380
Nitrate 4
Phosphates 0.04
Temp 78.5-79.00
.
Thanks!

 

[Murica]

Although you added the dry rinsed sand, it is very possible you will get a bloom. Although coastal sand naturally doesn't have as much silica than inland sand, there could still be trace amounts that will cause the bloom. It's all good though because most people experience a bloom with newly set up tanks and it goes away within a few weeks to months...

As for the parameters.. If your sand is one hundred percent clean then initially you won't see a difference. However once the bacteria from your tank starts developing in the sand you may get a bacterial bloom. Just make sure your power heads are on because bacterial blooms can delete oxygen but other than that it's pretty harmless. Just looks bad.

In either case, it'll all level out in time so that parameters are consistent and diatoms phase out.

I've always had sand and I just went bare bottom recently... Absolutely love it. May be worth taking the sand back out but that's entirely up to you. Here is a thread on bare bottom..
The great bare bottom debate

https://www.reef2reef.com/index.php?threads/The-great-bare-bottom-debate.297696/

Good luck [emoji106]