Sand Or No Sand

[Jason Bell]

So everyone, what's you're take?

 

[Seasquirt]

I thought that i was going to go no sand but it just didn't look natural.
I tried it and said no,
Remember, no sand, no nassarious, no wrasses, you lose a lot of area that would hold bacteria. There's lots of clean up to do when you have to constantly clean the debris from the bottom glass.

 

[Jason Bell]

I have always liked sand, but the thought of a bottom covered with Monti and Zoa is also appealing to me. Bottom is easy to clean, cycle the pumps on nutrient export and in the sock it goes. That said I couldn't do that with sand.

I'm not a real fan of wrasses, but I do miss my orange spot, he had such great character, made a hell of a mess, but his personality made up for that.

 

[teebone110]

I have had both and there and benefits to be considered for either choice. Bottom line- it’s YOUR tank and you should do what you like best.

Are you starting with Marco rock/ non-live, it might take longer for the tank to establish itself without a sand bed. Less biomass.

no sand bed= easier to clean detritus
High flow - no sand = no blowing of sand

There are also arguments to be made that no sand is better for ick management since there is less area mass for ick to survive. Ick can thrive amongst the spaces within each sand particle.

I like the look of a sand bed, but as mentioned- it’s your tank

 

[Salty Cracker]

I go DSB, I like the buffer it provides, plus you get the benefit of aerobic AND anaerobic bacteria, both of which are present in the sea. Basically anything that nature does, I'd want to replicate it as best as possible. I think the second issue would be cracked glass, you can't even hide some eggcrate under the substrate to keep liverock from crunching the glass (well I suppose you could, but it would look weird). I believe either method can work though...I just side on buffer and redundancy.

 

[Jason Bell]

I actually just went through both your build threads looking to see what you did. I've always had substrate of some type and last weekend I was hell bent on bare bottom. Then I started looking at other tanks and all of them with exception of a few have sand.

It is all Marco rock that I used, I will be moving 2 bio blocks 8*4 size from my current tank over to the new one in order to get things started.

I calculated out that I would need 140lbs to cover the 72*30 bottom with a decent depth.

Would that be enough? Fiji Pink, ocean floor special, sugar sand...many choices, I know I don't want crushed coral, not good if I get another orange spot.

Suggestions on sand type and volume?

I have to make a run Friday to pick up some more equipment that has arrived, so would pick it up then. I'm hoping with 200gpd rodi that I can have it filled by Sunday morning.

Thanks for the suggestions and answers.

 

[teebone110]

You should search YouTube a look up “Rappin’ with ReefBum” and watch the Episode with Jake Adams from ReefBuilders.

He has some strong opinions against the aspect of sand beds in reef tanks. He basically states that there is no reason for them other then whether the end user likes the look. He says there is no data that supports the need for them to support a reef ecosystem.

It has just been the standard that has evolved over the years and we are now at the point where it is proven that sand beds are not necessary to have a successful reef. It’s very interesting.

 

[Dr. Zoos]

I go without because I love the encrusting corals on my glass bottom and spot cleaning is a breeze. All of my detritus gets blown into on a few small areas. I’ve painted them black or used vinyl

 

[Matt1997]

I’ve always done sand. I like the look. One system has Hawaiian black the other has crushed coral

 

[Salty Cracker]

I personally prefer the fine crushed coral, it doesn't blow around and get into the pumps as easily. I would recommend to stay away from sugar sand, my first tank had that as I loved that look, but real quick I found out it just gets everywhere, and can really wreck the magnets in pump motors pretty quick. The other consideration is the coral type. I want sps, I really don't like lps or softies at all, so I want a nice big calcium reservoir in the tank if the coral needs it. I dose calcium, but you just never know (it's a bugger trying to get good specs on calcium levels, so I just like to have tons). I dunno, I really in my soul think a bare bottom only works until it crashes, and knock on wood, I haven't had a crash outside of equipment failure, in 10 years. As well, zoos have no problem growing ALL OVER crushed coral, like the weeds that they are. I start them with a flat rock down in the substrate, and they just spread out from there.

As others are pointing out, it's definitely possible to do bare bottom. I just think you would have to be much more diligent with filters, additives, parameters etc. I mean, if you don't have 150lbs of bacteria habitat, you're either relying on just the liverock to clean the water column, or you have really good mechanical filtration. I mean, I can only tell you what I'm familiar with, what works etc.

 

[Jason Bell]

Thanks everyone for the thoughts and opinions. I know I don't want a shallow layer of substrate as that does blow around and sooner or later gets pilled up one side. I am sure I will make a last minute decision, I did watch the BRS 160 video and they had huge issues when they decided to remove the sand bed, lends to the belief that it was doing something as they lost almost everything in the tank.