Sandbed or no sandbed, that is the question...

[prosnow]

Hey all, me again, looking for some advice on the whole sandbed or no sandbed idea, like everyone else i like the look of a sandbed, but i like the ease of the barebottem, anyone try faux sand bed? if so how did it turn out, how did u do it, did coraline and what not grow on it??

thanks!

[TheReefGeek]

What exactly constitutes a faux sandbed?

[MobyDick]

i think it's sand made out of faux....:lol:What exactly constitutes a faux sandbed?

[muck]

A faux sandbed would be a really thin layer of sand glued to the bottom of your tank.
Whether that be directly to the bottom glass or on a piece of starboard.
It gives you the look of a sandbed (kinda IMO) with the benifits of a BB tank.

[mr_alberta]

A fake sandbed is where sand is epoxied onto a surface such as glass or starboard. This gives the look of sand, but, since its all glued down, it also acts like a bare bottom tank.

FunkyFish14 should chime is as he as done it. I believe that Doug has also done it in his tank.

[mr_alberta]

DOH...dang Ryan...to fast :lol:

[TheReefGeek]

THanks. I have read of glued sandbeds for SPS reefs with high flow, didn't know that is what it was called though.

[bulletsworld]

i think it's sand made out of faux....:lol:


:lol:


It's your personal preference though. I like the sandbed myself but others like BB so who's to say.

I seen Harveys tank with the starboard and I was impressed actually.You almost though it could be sand. So to each their own. :wink:

[mr_alberta]

I remember a couple of people asking how I keep my sand "so flat" when I had starboard. :lol: :mrgreen:

[Deathstar]

I think a reef tank looks much better with a sand bed. But that is just me :mrgreen:

[prosnow]

i'm pretty sure i'm going to go with some sort of sand bed now, just not the sugar grain sand like last time, anyone got any advice on something a bit bigger thats not going to get blown around everywhere?????

[Funky_Fish14]

As an initial clarrification for future reference, so everyone understands the expression "faux sand-bed".... faux means false in french.

Yes, I shall chime in on this one, heh.

I currently have a faux sandbed in the bottom of my 75g reef. It has been in there since December. I used Envirotex-Lite epoxy(about... 3/4 gallon of it) mixed with sand, and layed it directly onto the glass. After it hard started to harden, I sprinkled a bunch more sand on top, to make sure I had the sand-bed look. I did this because the type of epoxy I was using is a poor-on high-gloss finish. You can choose to mix the sand in, and have a smooth topped clear, hard finish, with which you can see sand inside, or have the sand on top. The stuff I used was quite expensive mind you, 89.99 at the only place I could find it in the city.

I used to run sand in the system, and the difference in alk and CA levels is obvious. It was very easy to up flow, and I do not get sand blown all over the place, my sand-bed always stays in place, lol. I have a 32x turnover rate in the tank(per hour). Two seio 1100's mounted in the rear corners facing the middle of the front glass(the Maxi-jet for the refugium doesnt cause much water turbulence obviously). I have found that syphoning detrius out is almost as easy as with a BB, but its nice to still get the sand-bed look. Yes, I do have some corraline growing on the bottom, however I dont mind it. IMO, it doesnt look bad. I have never had anyone question my 'sand-bed', lol, unless they know about it in the first place.

I do have the tank about half full of SPS, which I find the fact I can have more flow quite beneficial. I also do have two clams, a squamosa and crocea, both on the 'FSB'(faux sand-bed), and there is still quite a bit of flow even under the crocea, and some by the squamosa, but this doesnt seem to affect their footing on the FSB.

Hope this helps, if you have any questions about it feel free to ask!

Chris

[Funky_Fish14]

Here is a pic of it before there was much in the tank. Gives you an idea of what the finished product looks like:

http://i22.photobucket.com/albums/b337/Funky_Fish14/LeftSide2.jpg

Chris

[TheReefGeek]

Talking to Bev about her BB, it is much harder to stack live rock because you can use the sand to level the piece of rock how you want it.

[Funky_Fish14]

I have found the rock to stay in place well, and move alot less with my FSB.

Chris

[TheReefGeek]

I imagine it would stay in place better, and not move around on you.

But for initial placement, how the rock sits on the hard surface is how the rock sits, except to turn it. You can't adjust as easily as with sand..

[Beverly]

Talking to Bev about her BB, it is much harder to stack live rock because you can use the sand to level the piece of rock how you want it.

I wouldn't exactly say it is "harder" to stack LR on a BB tank. I would say that if a rock on the base has one or two ways it will stand on the BB, those are your only two options and you have to work around these limitations. However, with a sandbed, you can partially push your lowest rocks into the sand to a certain degree and have the sand support those rocks so they can be at slightly different angles than just the one or two offered with the BB.

That said, once a rock is placed on the BB, it does not move around unless you move it. Also, it seems to be much easier, at least with the rock I have, to creatively aquascape a large tank than it is to aquascape a smaller one. Of course, my smallest tank is 24'x18'x24" high and with the limitations of the rock I have for that tank, it takes as long to aquascape as my 48"x24"x24" high.

I'm also at a saturation point with coralline on the bottom of one of my tanks, and each time I siphon out the crud, I am also loosening and siphoning out a bit of coralline, too.

Whether you do a faux bottom or just go BB, make sure to leave spaces between your rock stacks and tank walls for basting the crud out from under your rock, where most of your tank's crud will accumulate.

[Skimmerking]

Good one Bev See I have my 170 Fowlr BB and the nano that im setting up will have DSb so the gobies can burrow


go figure..

mike

[prosnow]

You know your giving something alot of thought when you have a dream about it haha. I had a pretty vivid dream of me going with a BB and not liking the looks, but then I go and dump a bunch of sand in and have a neverending cloud of sand blowing around :( maybe the faux might do it for me now...

[OCDP]

IMO ... (key word)

I would go BB in a nano... as you'll see how quickly nitrates and phosphates can build up. When you think about it.. unless you have something that can really stir up the sand... its just like a bed of gunk and crap... a bed of gunk and crap that you can't really see.

Over time it just keeps building up, right? But in a BB tank, nothing can settle in the bottom like that... and keeping the tank free of detritus would be much easier IMO.

Yes, it probably will look a little weird in the beginning, but overall and in the end I think it would be worth it...

That's just my view on it now, and I am thinking of going BB myself,.... at the very least if you do decide to go with sand, I would do the FSB, or a very small sand bed... (easier to keep clean this way as well)

Good luck, let us know what you go with

[TheReefGeek]

Because I like the sand look so much, in my 20g nano I am setting up I am doing a DSB in it, but am willing to replace it when it becomes a problem.

[i have crabs]

and what would the problem be that you would have to replace the sandbed over?

[Skimmerking]

May be gettign dirty really easy or Cynao and he can suck out the cynao and replace the sand for the tank....

[digital-audiophile]

I think a reef tank looks much better with a sand bed. But that is just me :mrgreen:

I agree, bare bed just seems so sterile.. so LFS like.

[Skimmerking]

But Greg we have one up on LFS were better then they are.. I love my Bare bottom tank lots of flow for the crap to stay lifted for the overflows to pick up..

[digital-audiophile]

:D I guess that is true! If I was doing a tank that was SPS dominated I might consider it.. but I would miss the sand though

[TheReefGeek]

The sand bed can become a "problem" in that detrius can build up in/on it, and make it more difficult to control nitrates, algae growth, etc. In my 180 display tank this is not a problem because I have lots and lots of sandsifters and really high flow, so all my detrius that settles gets kicked back up into the water column, then into my filter floss in my sump then out of my tank. In my nano this might be more difficult because it wont be enough sand to keep a dragon goby or some other sand sifters healthy, but maybe there are some smaller gobies that can do the job for me, then I wont have to replace the sandbed, if I keep my flow high and use mechanical filtration.

[dufferdan]

I think it depends on what kind of animals you want to keep. I went barebottom because I wanted to keep sps and I think it is easier to keep the water cleaner with a BB setup. Still, I use a Fuge with a deep sand bed and grow Macro Algea