Sand vs no sand?

[hfp75]

Sand looks good and if healthy is good for the tank.

By healthy I mean, sand is a bit of its own separate world in a tank. It can help with filtration. A healthy sand bed will have a bunch of snails and a few sand stars (depending on tank size). The key to a healthy sand bed is that it is being turned over frequently. A stagnant sand bed is bad news. If your able to maintain it then go for it!!!

If you are going to forget all about it and let it become a nitrate / detritus sponge then it's bad news.

When your fish die off you notice within a day or so, because you can see it. What's alive in the sand you can't see so you need to be very observant!!!

Also remember that when you clean your tank you should vacuum or siphon off/out the sand and take out a bunch each time, wash it and dump it back in..... just helps keep the brown sludge that can accumulate down.

[Leach29]

Thank you everyone for your replies.

Great to hear everyone's views, and thoughts.

Maintenance is going to be an issue for me, I was hoping to keep it as simple as possible. I am having it in wall with a fish room and my space is limited being able to syphon some spots due to framing ect. I will take pics and show everyone when I get my build thread going. It concerns me that I will have many dead spots.

If I have run refugium that would help with the water quality ?

[EarthEaterBob]

Originally Posted by kien

My thought is that I have never seen a bare bottom ocean. Or sea for that matter. Or lake even. Or river.

If you think the majority of the coral that we keep in our tanks actually get anywhere near sand in their natural environment, you'd be fooling yourself

That being said, I like sand for the aesthetics. But BB is definitely a ton easier to clean...