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I had more options including bare bottom on the poll but when I posted it excluded a couple of them. :confused:

Its interesting to see everone's opinion on sand beds as far as being an
esthetic or functional part of our aquariums. I can't remember which magazine I read this in and my numbers might be slightly off but 75% to 80% of anoxic denitrification occure within the top 3/4 of and inch of the sand bed. I guess I'll be satisfied with my 1.5 to 2 inches.

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and for a properly loaded tank that is not overstocked the Live rock and skimming will handle all your de-nitrification needs.

for what it is worth I was one who jumped on the DSB bandwagon as it was all the rage when I was starting up. I started with 6 to 8" depth then about 1 year later I started having algae problems and other problems that I couldn't explain. I moved and removed all the sand except for 1/2 an inch and the problems went away. now the only reason I want to go totally bare bottom is so I can increase the flow in the tank through out the whole tank to aid in detritus removal.

Steve

I agree, where is the 0 option? I have quite a bit of flow going through my tank, and quite a bit of it is directed towards the bottom of the tank... I can't imagine what kind of mess I would have if I had a sandbed.

-Richer

"O"

and my fat 3yr. old mandarin is just fine. :biggrin:

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Sorry guys.

1.5" - 2". Makes my yellow watchman happy :biggrin: & I get more biodiversity.

If you have Gobys in your sand bed I hate to say but chances are you have no bio diversity at all. :mrgreen:

Steve

At least, not where they're digging.

I had two for a while and they dug in one area and filtered for food in the rest of the tank. nedless to say the sand bed was clean :rolleyes: :mrgreen:

Steve

Well mine must not have read your posts because it mostly eats the frz. mysis, b.s., and blood worms. When I look in the tank after the main lights are out, I can see literally 100s of live mysis, copepods & arthopods crawling around. I seeded the tank with OA's live sand & there's lots of LR & different macroalgae for the "bugs" to hide in. So as long as he doesn't sneak on my computer at night and check out your posts, he'll stay fat & happy & I'll keep my biodiversity :lol: :biggrin: Let's here it for illiterate fish :exclaim: :razz: