Sand bed thoughts

[EmilyB]

Some discussion on this during the Victoria tank tour....just thought I might start a thread here for some of the people who've kept a sandbed for a longer period.

I'm removing the bed from the 120g, but I have been wondering about the whole thing since I switched from a shallow cc bed a few years ago.
I had a LOT more life, but I did have probably 2lbs live rock per gallon.

Originally, I was going to replenish some sand in the 155g (four year old sand bed)...now I don't think so.

Thoughts?

[SuperFudge]

Hi Deb,

I do love the look of the DSB,but i have really come to think the benifits may not outweigh the potential long term problems. (more so in the main display)
This last sand bed i have had has followed me through several tanks and some of it is over 5 yrs old.
I have always thought i had a healthy sandbed,but lately i have fought with redish cyano trying to cover the substrate,and even with the addition of goodies from a rock curing vat it still had slowly gone down hill.
I did add new sand aswell, but i couldnt place the blame soully on that reason either.
I also am sure the critter population for the sandbed turnover was excellent,i had a tigertail cuke,conch,about a million stomatella and other sand dwelling snails.
Yet when i just tore the sandbed down,it seemed just like a a big cesspit of sulphide and detritus.
I understand these anoxic portions are supposed to be there,but it hardly seems a benifit to the system water quality.

I have no doubt that a sand bed adds a whole range of benificial life to the system, but after removing atleast 200lbs (ya,i was panicking) from there the corals or fish look nor act any different than before....even after a transfer into a large tub.

I guess it will have to be a little more long term before i could say that there was a significant benifit in removing it, and im yet unsure if nitrates wont rise like crazy..but i would guess that a small,managable and semi-routinley siphoned sandbed in your refugium would be just as benificial, Live rock accomplishing the rest.
( I cringe at the thought of all the guys right now that would like to jump on me for saying so )

In the future i will be setting up another reef,and i know I wont have a sandbed any deeper than enouph to cover the bottom glass, even if in the end it is only for peace of mind.

I really believe it would be ,overall just as sucssesful a system or even moreso than a tank with a DSB.

Alright.....Let me have it.

[Jack]

When I took down my 110 gallon reef w/5-6 inch DSB the sulphide smell and dirty grey water that was left behind was a cause for question with me. On my new 120 gal I didn't want that in there, plus it took up valuble hight in the tank so I went with a small sandbed (1/2 to 3/4 inch medium grade aragonite bed) but it just didn't look as awesome as a fine grained DSB. I also was wondering If I was loosing benifitial aspects of the DSB so I came to a comprimise and I added a bit more than 2 inches of sugar sand. It looks good and I hope I get a lot of sand bed life. For "nitrate reducing" I went with a 4-5 inch DSB in a 20 gallon refugium and hooked up to my sytem.

Now am I getting the same filtration that my 110 gal had? I think so. The way I look at it, at least this sandbed in the rubbermaid refugium can be replaced in a few years, if it is proved that they need replacing or refreshing.

I'm interested to hear what people think about this aswell, so post!

[christyf5]

I am a sandbed.
I have worms crawling in me.
Eeww gross!
Get me outta here!

- Sandbed Thoughts

[SuperFudge]

[AJ_77]

Originally Posted by christyf5

I am a sandbed.
I have worms crawling in me.
Eeww gross!
Get me outta here!

- Sandbed Thoughts

Now THAT's funny!

[smokinreefer]

the one thing i like about a thin sand bed, is the notion that if it looks dirty, you can siphon it out, clean it and put it back, or just replace the thin covering, and then the tank would look all purdy again! ofcourse providing the tank has sufficient biological filtration to sustain the tank, without causing any spikes when the sanded is removed.
just a thought.

[ron101]

Sounds like 'old tank syndrome'. I remember reading a few posts over in Shimek's forum on RC about old sandbeds. I believe he was saying that after several years accumulated detritus and bound-up nutrients can start to cause problems. He doesnt recommend re-using old sand.

I guess according to his info, one should tear down the tank once every several years and clean or replace a portion of the DSB. I can't wait...

[SuperFudge]

Originally Posted by ron101

Sounds like 'old tank syndrome'. I remember reading a few posts over in Shimek's forum on RC about old sandbeds. I believe he was saying that after several years accumulated detritus and bound-up nutrients can start to cause problems. He doesnt recommend re-using old sand.

I guess according to his info, one should tear down the tank once every several years and clean or replace a portion of the DSB. I can't wait...

Thats what i had done...it did not work in the slightest.
I am not a scientist, but i really think most of that is bogus.

What then about the rock ? It would have the same problems aswell,yet noone tears that out and replaces it.

So If there is nutrient/detritus build up to toxic levels within the sand bed, then its really defeating its original purpose.....the whole idea of the DSB was to support the planktonic life to process these organics.
And it clearly doesnt.

If there were no sand bed at all, the end result is the same....you still end up having manually remove the stuff anyways.

[Aquattro]

Originally Posted by Fudge

What then about the rock ? It would have the same problems aswell,yet noone tears that out and replaces it.

.

Marc, I recall reading that Dr. Ron recomended replacing rock every 5 or 6 years or something like that.