sandbed in a pico reef

[dla]

I just move about 4lbs of live rock and some corals into a 2.5 pico. I have a bare bottom (my tank ).

 

Do the sand bed has a purpose?

How deep should it be?

What kind?

 

I really don't want to take everything out of the tank, but will if the sand bed will help it in any way.

 

Can I use some of the sand from my other tank.

[Toomin]

does beautifying gives you a good reason?

lol.

well.having a sand bed is good.

it allows creatures/critters to hide.

for eg.nassirius snails needs sand bed.

[SHB]

for that size tank you would no need an extremly deap sand bed. About 0.5-1.0 inches would be sufficient.

 

P.S Place your live rock in you tank and dont put any sand underneath the live rock. By doing this in combination with good circulation, all organics will desolve and then removed by your filtration.

 

Change your water every other day, about 10%

 

Good Luck!

[sammy113]

I second Toomin... Also bacteria lives there.

[SHB]

Thanks tipps

[dla]

for that size tank you would no need an extremly deap sand bed. About 0.5-1.0 inches would be sufficient.

 

P.S Place your live rock in you tank and dont put any sand underneath the live rock. By doing this in combination with good circulation, all organics will desolve and then removed by your filtration.

 

Change your water every other day, about 10%

 

Good Luck!

 

I have live rock in the tank right now, so all I have to do is just put sand around the rock? The tank dont have alot of open space on the bottom.

 

So with a pico you have to change the water every other day?

[Reverse Logic]

So with a pico you have to change the water every other day?

 

I am no where close to being an expert but I am pretty confident that every other day is a bit extreme, even bordering on doing more harm than good. (the good news is someone will always correct me if I'm wrong)

 

Putting the live rock in first, then the sand second always make the rocks look as if they are rising out of the sand. They end up looking for more natural and realistic. As far as any other benefits I don't know, but the last explanation made sense to me.

[dla]

Putting the live rock in first, then the sand second always make the rocks look as if they are rising out of the sand. They end up looking for more natural and realistic.

 

Sounds good to me.

 

I am no where close to being an expert but I am pretty confident that every other day is a bit extreme, even bordering on doing more harm than good.

 

Just making sure.

[Hekim]

With a light bioload, once a week 10-20% water change should be more than adiquate.

[dla]

What kind of substrate should I use?

[travisurfer]

any finer grain aragonite is good ime

[dla]

With a light bioload, once a week 10-20% water change should be more than adiquate.

 

I would say that I have a heavy bioload (a lot of corals, some snails and hermit crabs no fish.)

[dla]

I just put some white sand in my tank and it does make it look great and the way I did it (around the rock work) makes it looks more natural.

 

Thanks to everyone.

[Hekim]

If you do not have any fish you do not have a heavy bioload, once a week WC will be fine

[dla]

If you do not have any fish you do not have a heavy bioload, once a week WC will be fine

 

"O" o.k.

 

Thanks

[Esper]

NO SAND!!!!!

 

lol, do whatever you want. people seem to be successful both ways.

 

HOWEVER.....

 

since you already run a barebottom, you're probably already aware of its benefits. if you haven't already, you should really read everything Spanky says over at the Substrate Free Forum at http://www.thereeftank.com/forums/forumdisplay.php?f=164 (Spanky is Bomber on reefcentral, who introduced starboard bottoms...be careful, he tends to disagree with most hobby 'experts').

 

For the benefit of everyone else, any kind of sandbed basically becomes the largest living organism in the tank (the bacteria in it). All the constant upkeep of high calcium, alk, pH, phosphate removal, etc. come not from the corals, but the sandbed. in addition, it acts as a landfill for all the food and fish poop that doesn't get into the water column and taken out by the skimmer or water changes. it makes it very hard to feed your fish and corals enough to make them thrive without polluting the tank. then, there's water flow problems, which are exagerrated in nanos & picos...