Sand beds: What do you need and why.

Marlin65 · #1 09-03-2008, 06:18 AM

DSB need to be maintained and if that is done right there is no smell.
It should stay white and clean, but this requires maintenance.
Stirring the sand a bit ones in a while by hand or with animals feeds the corals organics, nutrients, and plankton. There are organisms living in the sand that most of us will never see as most come out at night. All this is beneficial to the full environment maintaining a complete ecosystem.
Live sand also provides micro fauna that provide food for the fish and inverts.
Worms ,mollusks,and tiny starfish are like earth worms to the gardener.
I have lots of sand in my tanks

EmilyB · #2 09-03-2008, 08:16 AM

Don't stay up all night taking that sand out Brad.

Aquattro · #3 09-03-2008, 01:36 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by EmilyB

Don't stay up all night taking that sand out Brad.

Well, geez Deb, you coulda said that earlier!!

Lance · #4 09-03-2008, 05:24 PM

I saw an interesting thread somewhere not too long ago, (maybe on RC). Anyway, the guy had cut plexiglass the size of the bottom of his tank. He sprayed styrofoam (the safe kind) onto the plexiglass and shaped it into little ridges and hills. Then while it was still wet he covered it with a very thin layer of sand, small pieces of rock, etc. When dry, he placed it on the bottom of the tank and then aquascaped with live rock and corals. It looked quite realistic and had none of the problems that comes with DSB. It is like having a BB tank but looks like it has a DSB. He just blows the detritus up into the water column. I'm seriusly considering this when I set up my 225 FOWLR.
I have coarse sand and crushed coral in my 90 gal reef; about 2-3 inches deep. There are things I like and don't like about it. It's easier to keep in place than the finer sand, but IMO doesn't look as good as the fine stuff. The 90 is 9 months old so I haven't really had any issues yet. I give it a bit of a stir from time to time and that's about it.

fkshiu · #5 09-03-2008, 06:10 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Lance

I saw an interesting thread somewhere not too long ago, (maybe on RC). Anyway, the guy had cut plexiglass the size of the bottom of his tank. He sprayed styrofoam (the safe kind) onto the plexiglass and shaped it into little ridges and hills. Then while it was still wet he covered it with a very thin layer of sand, small pieces of rock, etc. When dry, he placed it on the bottom of the tank and then aquascaped with live rock and corals. It looked quite realistic and had none of the problems that comes with DSB. It is like having a BB tank but looks like it has a DSB. He just blows the detritus up into the water column. I'm seriusly considering this when I set up my 225 FOWLR.
I have coarse sand and crushed coral in my 90 gal reef; about 2-3 inches deep. There are things I like and don't like about it. It's easier to keep in place than the finer sand, but IMO doesn't look as good as the fine stuff. The 90 is 9 months old so I haven't really had any issues yet. I give it a bit of a stir from time to time and that's about it.

If I recall, the fake sandbed looked good for a few weeks and then got covered by more and more blotches of coralline. Seemed to be a lot of work for something that would only look neat and tidy for a short period of time.

Canadian · #6 09-03-2008, 11:14 PM

I too did the DSB thing about 10 years ago. I followed "the Godfather's" (Ron Shimek's) gospel and did not disturb my sandbed. Things looked great for the first 1-2 years usually and then I would start to see obvious signs of accumulating organics and start running into problems. My response was to overhaul the tank including the sandbed and start fresh. Eventually I took a hiatus from the hobby for a few years when I had to move for school and vowed that when I returned I would never have a DSB again.

About a year ago I started up a nano SPS dedicated tank. I decided I'd try a SSB for aesthetics. That experiment lasted about 1 month before I got sick of seeing detritus accumulating in the sand despite copious amounts of nassarius snails and hermit crabs. When I moved my tank to Victoria I went BB - things were basically glorious. I then moved my tank when we moved into our new place last month. Under the influence of my fiance I added sand in the form of a SSB when I set the tank up again. I loved the aesthetic it supplied. I hated the organics it trapped. But, hey, I'm a guy and women make us do stupid things even when we know we shouldn't do them. Two days ago I yanked all the sand again and I will now remain BB for eternity unless someone comes up with some new fangled method of husbandry and some convincing explanations to get me to change.

I frequently read DSB proponents say that in a SPS dedicated tank you can still have a DSB as long as you're creative with your flow patterns. I don't want to compromise on the growth and color of my corals if I don't have to. I don't want to have to be creative with flow patterns when it would be easier to just blast away to my heart's content. With a BB I don't have to compromise and I can have what would be considered obscene numbers of fish with excessive feedings and still have to add amino acids to keep rich colors in my SPS. Personally, I would way rather have to add organics to my tank in a controlled fashion in order to keep nice colors than have to worry about how they are being sequestered, utilized and removed. But maybe that's just the control freak in me.

banditpowdercoat · #7 09-04-2008, 03:13 AM

I have a SSB, for 8 months now. keep getting green algae growth on the front of the tank where the room lights shine on it. Makes me mad. Keep scraping the algae film off, only to have it come back a week later. Feeding less than half what I used to, lots more water changes too

npt sure if I like the work over the looks??

Doug · #8 09-07-2008, 01:32 PM

Brad, I added between 1 or 2in. of sand to my 90g. Its a larger grain size also or at least larger than the really fine bed. Just regular Carib-Sea, likely 1 -2mm in size.

Now dont ask me why

. It looks purdy for now. As you know, I really am a bare bottomed fanatic. I was going to run a plenum in this tank but a few things turned my thoughts this way.

I,m prepared to siphon and replace some on occasion if thats needed to maintain it plus I plan on adding a lots of narcissus snails and some fighter conchs when the bed is mature enough for them. Its been close to 10 yrs, since I have run any sand in one of my tanks, so I guess we will see how it goes.

I may add I have never had any cyno since not having any sand. One sign of it and out it comes. Cyno and sand seem to go hand in hand.

o.c.d. · #9 09-07-2008, 10:35 PM

I have ran a DSB for over 7 years, 6" to bare glass in some places(Due to clownfish). Over the years I have vac small areas but other than that I don't touch it. It produces food for my copperband and mandarin who both pilfer through it on a constant basis. I would attribute no problems from the large amount of flow that crosses over the DSB then is pushed up in the water column. My 2cents

Doug · #10 09-08-2008, 01:36 PM

Well now I remember one reason I dislike sand. My 6080 cleared one end, 4ft. away.

Yea, clowns are bad for fanning it clear, likely out of habit to lay eggs, even if they dont. When I set my 90 up again, I put their pipe/eggcrate home back for them again.

http://216.187.96.54/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=41750

Even though some of the pipe has sand on the bottom, they lay their eggs on the top, so hopefully thats ok.

Now I need to stop it from blowing around. I can point my 1200gph Hydor straight at the stream pump and its just overpowered.