SAND BED vs BARE BOTTOM: Is it sand or nothing for you!?

revhtree · May 31, 2023

When it comes to setting up a saltwater reef tank, which substrate option do you prefer: a sand bed or a bare bottom tank?

Both approaches have their pros and cons, but we want to hear your personal preference and the reasons behind it. Are you team sand bed, valuing its natural appearance and beneficial sand-dwelling organisms? Or do you lean towards team bare bottom and the simplicity and ease of maintenance offered by a bare bottom tank?

SAND BED versus BARE BOTTOM

tank images via @ChristopherKriens and @irwin_fletch

j.falk · May 31, 2023

Every time I have added sand to my tanks, I get dinos within a month. Once I remove the sand from the tank, the dinos go away. Is there a correlation there? It seems so...especially considering that this has happened with 3 separate tanks over the course of 6 years.

My hypothesis is: The Ocean Direct live sand I've attempted to use is already populated with (dormant) dinos and they take over once conditions get right to where they can start thriving again. Is that what's really happening? I don't know, but that's the only thing that makes any sense to me...especially after experiencing it with 3 different tanks and all using the same brand of sand.

FishTruck · May 31, 2023

I prefer the look of sand for sure... but I have never had good luck maintaining a send bed, so BB for me.

A_Blind_Reefer · May 31, 2023

I’m not so sure bare bottom is actually easier to maintain or less maintenance than sand. I’ve had sanded tanks for many years and I thought siphoning the sand and getting sand in the magnet was oh such the hassle….well, after I absorbed all the bare bottom ultra low maintenance hype! Starting up a sanded tank is like starting an electric car to me. Starting up a bare bottom with dry rock is like starting a barn find 60’s muscle car with rusted out points, and a gummed up carburetor. Siphoning vs using an underwater jack hammer to keep all the encrusters at bay, I think I’d rather siphon. I love how both look. Reality, an established bb is less maintenance and you won’t get sand in your scraper but someone needs to come up with a laser or ultrasonic blaster like they use for kidney stones to keep encrusters at bay and off the glass!

blecki · May 31, 2023

j.falk said:
Once I remove the sand from the tank, the dinos go away. Is there a correlation there?

Yes, obviously so. Dinos feed on silicates. Beach sand is mostly silica, aka, the most abundant substance on the planet. Even argonite sand has some in it.

I like engineer gobies so don't really have a choice, but have to admit when I ran the tank bare bottom I had a lot less issues. Just had to suck out the mulm every once and a while.

exnisstech · May 31, 2023

Barebottom mostly. I did just add sand to a barebottom tank so I could add a blue haddoni.

j.falk said:
My hypothesis is: The Ocean Direct live sand I've attempted to use is already populated with (dormant) dinos and they take over once conditions get right to where they can start thriving again. Is that what's really happening? I don't know, but that's the only thing that makes any sense to me...especially after experiencing it with 3 different tanks and all using the same brand of sand.

A mixture of CaribSea Fiji pink and oolite. Dinos present within a week and none were there before adding the sand. Maybe dinos just prefer sand

brandon429 · May 31, 2023

One thing I'm sure of: it takes very special procedures when dealing with pent-up waste sandbeds to not kill the tanks when it's time to transfer, move, upgrade or clean them. Especially if aged

What works to instantly eliminate the waste from any sandbed, so that it can't kill the tank during handling, is not what the masses think it is

Any reader would be surprised to see the number of sandbed impacted reef tank loss threads we have on file in the forum, huge $ costly losses by incorrect aged sandbed handling. There's good legit money to be had, retained, by working in clean sandbed practices. Non sandbed tanks have some things much easier...such as particulate waste removal vs sinking rates

(if you can reach in your sandbed, grab a handful and drop it + a cloud results, that's wastefuel)

Detritus that comes from 100 different sandbeds in work threads isn't the same safety state as tested oxygenated and reduced detritus from a 100 different sumps

Sandbed detritus is a much denser, mixed state of protein decay across 100 presentations. It has higher BOD and COD commands from the water vs oxygenated sump detritus, so across 100 jobs to be done with sandbeds some them are going to experience fish loss and recycle risk during handling, if a rather strict order of ops rule set isn't being followed

One of the most fun things in reefing is striving to attain great looking sandbeds that aren't a secret liability for your system as you invest time, money and years into the setup. Removing the liability that is a deep sandbed is beneficial reef tank hobby science... being able to keep sand in the tank/ everybody knows that looks better/ and not lose long term investments is a big deal for the hobby, reefers hone that practice as they post thousands of sandbed outcome examples online for compare and contrast.

brandon429 · May 31, 2023

I keep a deep sandbed, reefs look best that way imo. Voted + sand

special rules in place make that sandbed not a problem whatsoever.

Petcrazyson · May 31, 2023

BOTH! I prefer BB in Nanos and Sand in lager systems

Nano_Man · May 31, 2023

Bare bottom tanks but for years I always used sand . But bare bottom is maintenance easy imo

FoolishWizard · May 31, 2023

I like the look of bare bottom in other peoples tanks but its sand all day for me. I want my tank to look natural and like a cliche "slice of the ocean"

revhtree · Jun 1, 2023

BUMP!

Budman93 · Jun 1, 2023

j.falk said:
Every time I have added sand to my tanks, I get dinos within a month. Once I remove the sand from the tank, the dinos go away. Is there a correlation there? It seems so...especially considering that this has happened with 3 separate tanks over the course of 6 years.

My hypothesis is: The Ocean Direct live sand I've attempted to use is already populated with (dormant) dinos and they take over once conditions get right to where they can start thriving again. Is that what's really happening? I don't know, but that's the only thing that makes any sense to me...especially after experiencing it with 3 different tanks and all using the same brand of sand.

It could also be that water flows more rapidly over the bare tank and sand is just a more ideal substrate for dinos to attach themselves too. Theres plenty of people with sand bottom tanks that dont have dinos.

Miami Reef · Jun 1, 2023

I like sand, but my flow is VERY strong, so it blows everywhere.

Bare bottom for me.

codenfx · Jun 1, 2023

I have sand because I have leopard and yellow coris wrasse. Also fun to watch diamond goby sifting sands along with nassarius snails popping out. It just feels complete to me. Although it can get annoying when they spit sand onto the corals but it outweighs the cons.

Gumbies R Us · Jun 1, 2023

I have a sand bottom tank, so I guess sand bottom, but bare bottom tanks are really neat though

shakacuz · Jun 1, 2023

sand. i have a yellow wrasse, yellow head jawfish, and candy cane pistol shrimp.

if i were to re-do it all? still sand, unless i have a ridiculous amount of lighting where i can put encrusting corals on the bottom glass.