Sand or no sand - Help me choose!!

[DancingShark]

I went with kind of a hybrid approach. I put down a layer of silicon covering the entire bottom of the tank and then poured sand on it while it was still wet. I pushed the sand in a little then let the silicon dry and poured off the excess sand. It has stood up well for 8 months.

Like sprinkling glitter on glue lol. Nice idea.
Maybe I'll try that on my next tank.

 

[esquare]

Like sprinkling glitter on glue lol. Nice idea.

Lol, maybe next time I will add some sparkles

 

[lbacha]

I went with kind of a hybrid approach. I put down a layer of silicon covering the entire bottom of the tank and then poured sand on it while it was still wet. I pushed the sand in a little then let the silicon dry and poured off the excess sand. It has stood up well for 8 months.

This is how I did the sand bed in the water section of my vivarium. The Whole back wall of the 75g is a waterfall with a 6 inch water section that covers most of the tank. When I first tried it out the waterfall would push all the sand away. To fix this I used great stuff foam to build up to the depth I wanted my sand bed under the waterfall I then put brown silicon and spread sand over it. The front of the tank is full of sand about 2" thick and I have plants of plants growing in it.

 

[P-Dub]

Go with what you want. I always like the way sand looks. I find it funny that folks say that it looks more natural. In actuality, it couldn't be further from the truth. 90% of the reef is rock. There is very little sand on the natural reef. There are pockets of sand here and there and there is often sand at the deep edge of some sloping reefs but it is not prevalent. I had sand and switched to bare. I find the overall ease of maintenance of a bare bottom superior to sand bottoms. I like the look of a sand bottom and if there are critters that sift or sleep in the sand you will want sand. For your LPS and softy tank, I would think that the extra nutrients that might build up in the sand bed will not as easily adversely affect your inhabitants resulting in less maintenance of the sand bed required. I had large rubble in lieu of sand and that was actually far more natural looking.

 

[pharazon]

Eventually,
You have to clean a bare bottom.
You don’t have to clean sand.
(It’s like a good carpet, hides the pizza stains )

Ahh, the ol’ “flavor-savor.”

 

[KOvette]

Bare bottom. My next tank will be bare bottom with a Tupperware container of sand in the corner for my wrasses to sleep in. Sand is such a pain to keep clean and if you don't it gets even worse.

Please post a pic after you set up the BB tank with a Tupperware sandbox. I’m really interested in seeing it!