Sand or no sand

[brandyrb]

About a 4-5" deep sand bed here. I have a deep sandbed for some of my inhabitants, wrasses, gobies, pistol shrimp and for filtration. I have Super Tongan Nassarius Snails for sandbed maintenance and detritus clean up. I have a lot of random flow in my tank and just have to adjust the nozzels so that the sand doesn't get kicked up everywhere.

 

[AlexStinson]

I think if you have enough critters in your sand you should be fine, I keep a large regiment of jumbo nassarious snails and they seem to do quite a dandy job... recently moved the tank and still 0 nitrates

 

[Tswifty]

I like a shallow sand bed, just for looks.

 

[Reef Pets]

Bare Bottom all the way in my opinion. I do like the look of a sand bed but on the other hand a Coraline Algae covered Bare Bottom looks awesome as well. In the last 8 years or so of not using sand I have had less issues with keeping a tank stable. So, in my opinion not having sand is much healthier for a tank and easier to keep clean, thats for sure. Of course these are not facts but my opinion and my experience.

Also, with a Bare Bottom tank you can create as much flow as you want and can get amazing growth due to the high flow.

 

[sucker_fish]

I have always kept a 4" sand bed with no bad results, seriously been thinking of going bare bottom though, saw a tank that had the bottom covered by GSP, Zoas, and a couple other encrusting stonies, really looked awesome...

 

[Blackhawk Fan]

BB4L!

Nothing better then a tank bottom covered in coraline. :D

 

[AZDesertRat]

I have had both over the years. In my larger systems I prefer a 5-6" DSB both for its natural look and for its nitrate treatment abilities. In a smaller system where you cannot possibly have enough square feet or surface area for nitrate removal a shallow sand bed still looks natural. My bare bottom tanks were all very successful but I never got used to the sterile unnatural look.

 

[SeaSlug]

I keep about 1" of sand, just in the front of the tank for appearance, the rest is BB.

Same here !

 

[tedstan]

DSB here, 5-6 inches. Have a 175 bowfront with about 250 gal of water going through it, so far no problems with nitrates or phos. I have many bottom cleaners in my tank. Tank has been up and running for about a year now.

 

[Russellaqua]

I went with about a 2" sand bed. It gives the tank a more natural feel and adds a place for beneficial bacteria to grow, as well as pods. I even use it in frag tanks. If a coral falls or you drop it it's much less likely to break when falling on sand. Having sand also lets you have fish that like to burrow, like engineer gobies and many wrasses.

 

[phil_pl]

well after reading this i am going to try a very nice quality sand for my SB in the DT, the sand i have right now is CRAP, i am goign to go BB in my frag tank and see how that works for me