Sand bed danger zone

[Letmeusemyemail]

I have been searching and couldn’t find the answer to where the danger zone lies in between the depth of a shallow sand bed and a deep sand bed. Looking to add substrate and, but don’t want to go 6 in deep. Thinking about 3 in max. Will prob use either Carib sea special grade or fiji pink. Will add a sand sifter goby later down the road.

 

[Smokeshow]

I believe the danger zone is between 3-5".

 

[Val Shebeko]

I believe the danger zone is between 3-5".

Danger zone?

 

[brandon429]

meme time.


sandbeds don’t work that way above heres how they work: randomly.

 

[Val Shebeko]

Danger zone?

I have always heard read that dsb’s need to be at least 6 inches in depth. I have not run across this notion of a danger zone. Can you please explain?

 

[Letmeusemyemail]

There are shallow sand beds up to 2.5-3 inches and dsb up to 6in. Anything in between isn’t deep or shallow enough for for anaerobic activity within the substrate.

 

[Val Shebeko]

There are shallow sand beds up to 2.5-3 inches and dsb up to 6in. Anything in between isn’t deep or shallow enough for for anaerobic activity within the substrate.

Thank you ! Do you know if there is a dsb forum out here?

 

[Letmeusemyemail]

I’m not too sure. I was thinking about what I wanted to do for my rsr 350 and how much sand I needed. I decided to keep it around 2-2.5 inches. I will also have 80 lbs of live rock and 6 in of substrate wouldnt look good aesthetically

 

[malacoda]

Now and then I've seen people say under 2" is okay, or 4"-6" is okay (deep enough to act like a deep sand bed - e.g. much more anaerobic activity for helping to keep nitrates low), but between 2-4" is a so-called danger zone.

But I agree with Brandon. It's not about a hard set range of depth, it's about your tank. And about what you want it to do for you.

Do you want it to be a MAJOR aid in keeping nitrates low? If so, rule of thumb is it needs to be 4" deep or more. If you'll plan on relying on your live rock alone and/or marine blocks, carbon dosing, or another nutrient control method, the it won't matter.

Do you plan on keep wrasses that sleep in the sand? While some people may get away with less, the rule of thumb is at least 2".

Do you manually clean it or not.
What kind of clean up crew do you have.
What kind of bioload do you have.
Do you periodically refresh or replace portions of the sand.
If you don't periodically clean or refresh, do you leave the sand undisturbed.

All of these play a part. And any depth of sand can be successful or cause problems based on your tank, it's biome, your maintenance habits, etc.

FWIW, I ran a 2-3" deep bed on 24g for 4.5 years without any problems. Didn't clean the sand. But always kept lower nutrient levels, diverse clean up crew ... and I mean diverse. All kinds of worms, chitons, snails, etc. Good flow to keep detritus patches from forming on top of it.

 

[Val Shebeko]

I’m not too sure. I was thinking about what I wanted to do for my rsr 350 and how much sand I needed. I decided to keep it around 2-2.5 inches. I will also have 80 lbs of live rock and 6 in of substrate wouldnt look good aesthetically

I have a 180 gallon that I want to set up as a clown harem and wanted to run a 125 tank underneath as dsb. I had run a dsb for a few years with decent results in an undrilled tank.

Wondering what other people‘s experiences have been.