Jump to content
Top Shelf Aquatics

Deep Sand Bed vs. Bare Bottom


Christopher Marks

Recommended Posts

this BB and DSB talk is making me think more and more and more on what i should do for the 75 that i am going to be setting up in the long future to come.

 

I like the idea of BB, but the look is what kills me, i like the look of sand, i am so undecided,

Link to comment
  • Replies 72
  • Created
  • Last Reply

Great links that GreenUku posted. Those articles had some very good information about the experiments they ran comparing plenums and sandbeds, deep and shallow. From what I've been seeing, it seems to me that the type of tank you have should be based on what you want. If you want corals, it sounds BB is better. If you fish, more sand is better. Perhaps we have the right balnace for both with a shallow sand bed.

 

Corals grow slow, and fish can adapt. I also enjoy the look of sand on the bottom. So for my reefs, I think I'll go with around an inch of sand, thick enough to keep it covered and give the critters something to play in, but thin enough to see if onthefly's claims work for a little sand. I'll keep a deeper course bed for my 125 fish only tank.

 

GARF does have some great stuff.

Link to comment
Originally posted by Philtur

From what I've been seeing, it seems to me that the type of tank you have should be based on what you want.

 

Perfect! Everything has a purpose........even UGF's :)

Link to comment
  • 2 weeks later...

I have been running a deep sand bed in my nano 24, just because I was told thats the way to go. And I have had no problems, and have infact gotten more life since. I gave never had an algea problem, and all my little sand critters love it. I do agree that it eats up reef space.

Link to comment

I don't have a choice, I have 5 inch sand on the left side of my tank, and gradually 1.5 inch to the right side of my 15 gallon regular. My pistol shrimp does the land scaping. I have to say though the land scape is unique as hell, like nothing I ever seen. A rock sits on the left side of my tank, and there is 5 inches of sand on teh left side of it, and on the right side it slopes down into a spiral to only inch of sand. I need to post a picture of this.

Link to comment
  • 3 years later...
perculaclownfish

I am not a fan of bare bottom aquariums, but, saying that I do not like deep sand beds either. I like a thin layer that covers the bottom of the tank.

Link to comment
  • 1 month later...

one word JAWFISH.... can't go without a DSB, i've had a 4 - 5" sandbed for well over a year now, no algae problems, no detritus problems, i stir it up about once every couple of months... and just my opinion, but bare bottom looks terrible.

Link to comment
pimp4cheddar

Interest thread...but how deep of a sand bed is DEEP?

 

I'm running about 2 inches deep and I like the look of it...It gets dirty after 2-3 weeks...but once you vac the sand...it clears up pretty good!

 

 

 

I picked sand...cuz barebottom looks horrible.

Link to comment
Nick's Reef

I did BB fior about 6mo I thought I had plenty of flow 100x turnover but when i tore down the ap24 to transfer into the 40 boy was I wrong, had tons of crap under the rocks.

Link to comment
  • 10 months later...
callmesaul8889

i have a 2-3" sandbed and im starting to see black spots at the deeper parts of the sandbed. i have a bad diatom problem and was thinking it might be due to the sandbed. any ideas on how i should switch? should i gradually remove sand every water change? should i wait until i move the tank? i'm afraid of something disturbing that black pocket and nuking everything.

Link to comment
  • 6 months later...
  • 3 months later...

so the reason DSB's are bad cuz there is not enough flow cuz its to small to have tempature gradeants to make flow, so there is dead spots that make black death? what about adding pipes under the sand and pump water through it making it almost a fluidized bed filter?

Link to comment
  • 8 months later...

I have had a DSB (about 4" to 5") for about a year now on my Marineland 29Gal Eclipse 2... Never have had a big problem with algae... Nitrates get Up too high every once in a while but a water change solves that... IMO i can't stand the look of BB tanks, too bare... I dont keep corals though so i dont monitor Phos. so i cant speak to that... I have alot of bristleworms and snails constantly stirring the sandbed so this be be beneficial in breaking up pockets of cyano and such

Link to comment
so the reason DSB's are bad cuz there is not enough flow cuz its to small to have tempature gradeants to make flow, so there is dead spots that make black death? what about adding pipes under the sand and pump water through it making it almost a fluidized bed filter?

 

 

So, basically an under gravel filter?

Link to comment
  • 1 month later...

I poorness to be healthy to vanish the enfeeble from the containerful. I currently love around 70x circulation and counseling on adding a bit many subsequent. To provide things get stirred up I soul my returns pointing aboveboard downwardly down my material plaything, with penductors to increse the rate. This helps record things from settling in hinder there, which is something I guess helps. I also bonk a skimmer rated for 250 gallons on my 150 congius cell. Bi-weekly element changes dedicate me to possibility to tubing up some does not get kicked up, which is not much.

Link to comment

BB. While it has been a very hard adjustment to the aesthetics of the BB look, I can't go back to sand just because of the benefits. I was having major cyano breakouts with sand in my tank, that even running chemi-pure elite wouldn't fully cure. Once I removed the sand, and saw just how much detritus had accumulated, I won't look back.

 

The one negative to not having sand, I must say though, is that anything loose in the tank gets completely blown around by my MP10. I have a large frogspawn specimen that gets moved around like crazy because there's nothing to really secure it to the bottom of the tank. I've been debating adding sand just so I have the ability to keep it in place, but I don't want to deal with the potential problems that having a sand bed could bring. Alas, I'll stick with BB.

Link to comment

BB for me. I've painted the underside sand color so it looks like it has a sand bed but stays spotlessly clean. My long term goal isn't to keep the bottom bare through - I want to cover it in different corals :D

 

115114.jpg

Link to comment
I poorness to be healthy to vanish the enfeeble from the containerful. I currently love around 70x circulation and counseling on adding a bit many subsequent. To provide things get stirred up I soul my returns pointing aboveboard downwardly down my material plaything, with penductors to increse the rate. This helps record things from settling in hinder there, which is something I guess helps. I also bonk a skimmer rated for 250 gallons on my 150 congius cell. Bi-weekly element changes dedicate me to possibility to tubing up some does not get kicked up, which is not much.

 

Say wahh?

Link to comment

Archived

This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.

  • Recommended Discussions


×
×
  • Create New...