To sand or not to sand.

mbdave · #1 02/25/2006, 08:00 PM

Back in the stone age when Fred and Wilma were my nieghbors and I mowed my lawn with a turtle I had my first reef tank. At that time everybody had a bare bottom. "In the tank that is I wore a brontosaurus skin". No one I mean no one had sand in a reef. Then Sprung started writing about the Germans having sand in their tanks and the benefits it produced. Well in a year or so everybody that was anybody had sand. Note; This was when Bennehanna was like 3.. Now I read debates for the removal of sand beds and the benefits,"Hrmmmm benefits with sand, and benefits without......." What to do???? So what does the NFMAS think? Has any of you leaped on the BB bandwagon? Let me know,

Ikaria · #2 02/25/2006, 08:10 PM

I remember starting out, back in the day, with just enough sand to cover the bottom. Now I prefer to have about 1" to 1-1/2" of argonite. I like the activity that it brings to the bottom with all the crabs digging around, the goby and pistol, etc. I don't think I would like the aesthetics of a 5" DSB. JMHO.

nikonosis · #3 02/26/2006, 10:32 AM

dsb for me!

mpdharley · #4 02/26/2006, 12:49 PM

I prefer to have sand in my tank, about 4 inches and a DSB in a fuge. I also think the type of sand that you use is important. This is what I used in my fuge and it has worked great for pod populations, etc. It is what I'll be using in my main tank when I rebuild my reef, upgrading it from the current 125 gallon to 180 gallon tank:

http://www.purearagonite.com/home.html

Edge · #5 02/26/2006, 05:18 PM

I can see if you're recreating a reefcrest were the corals are not normally near the bottom a bare bottom tank might be merited. In that case I'd say to make it so that the bottom glass cannot be seen via a raised edge on the stand. When I look at a BB tank all I can look at is the fact that there is nothing on the bottom. Very asthetically unpleasing.
I have always had substrate in my tanks because of asthetics and, as Ikaria said, for all the activity it brings to the tank. My next tank will be a seagrass bed so I'll have lots o' sand in that tank.

ED

mbdave · #6 02/26/2006, 06:47 PM

Quartermaster Chief Senior don't get the O??? Hey all in AFM there is a great article by Harker I think it is on aquascaping. It mentions sand but has some interesting stuff on rock placement. I recomend checking it out if you see the mag.

mbdave · #7 02/26/2006, 06:51 PM

"by Harker I think." It is on aquascaping........

mpdharley · #8 02/26/2006, 07:16 PM

I also like the critters in the tank that live in or off of the sandbed. Both to watch and I think they are beneficial.

Edge · #9 02/27/2006, 11:36 AM

QMCSO.
Qualified Medical Child Support Order. I approve or reject these orders based on compliance with the Internal revenue code. zzzzzz.

GoldStripe · #10 02/27/2006, 03:23 PM

What's the deal with the Southdown sand? A lot of people rave about it. Seems like it's a PITA to me with the storm it produces. Are there any benefits to using such a fine grained sand? What is it about Southdown that makes it different?

nikonosis · #11 02/27/2006, 05:04 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by GoldStripe
What's the deal with the Southdown sand? A lot of people rave about it. Seems like it's a PITA to me with the storm it produces. Are there any benefits to using such a fine grained sand? What is it about Southdown that makes it different?

its aragonite and very cheap. Imagine paying $2-5/40lb bag instead of $40/40lb bag.

mpdharley · #12 02/27/2006, 05:20 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by GoldStripe
What's the deal with the Southdown sand? A lot of people rave about it. Seems like it's a PITA to me with the storm it produces. Are there any benefits to using such a fine grained sand? What is it about Southdown that makes it different?

There are some ways to reduce the storm also. BTW, the storm can also happen with almost any time of substrate. One way to reduce the storm is to use trash bags and a bowl:

Starting

Filled. There was still some cloudiness, but it really wasn't that bad:

nikonosis · #13 02/27/2006, 05:39 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by mpdharley
There are some ways to reduce the storm also. BTW, the storm can also happen with almost any time of substrate. One way to reduce the storm is to use trash bags and a bowl:

Starting

Filled. There was still some cloudiness, but it really wasn't that bad:

what kinda sand is that?

mpdharley · #14 02/27/2006, 06:13 PM

That was some stuff I found some time ago that I really like. When I upgrade my 125 to 180 (happening soon), I'll be using it for the whole sand bed. Here's the link:

http://www.purearagonite.com/

A couple of years ago, I got Atlantis to be a distributor. I don't know if that has continued though. I'm trying to get Rob to become a distributor though as I'll need 360 lbs minimum when I upgrade my tank.

GoldStripe · #15 02/28/2006, 09:33 AM

So is it just your preference Mike, or is there actually an advantage to using Southdown. Seems like if would be difficult to keep the storms down with a lot of flow in the tank.

mpdharley · #16 02/28/2006, 11:27 AM

I like the sand from Pure Aragonite because of it's size and composition. It was also quite a bit cheaper than some of the other substrates out there (except for Southdown, which I could not find).

As for the storms, I haven't had one, except when I point a power head directly at the substrate. And that didn't last long once I removed the power head.

One note though. I just tried to go their website and now their domain name has expired and is awaiting renewal or cancellation. So, I don't know if the company is still around. I'll be checking for their site later today/tomorrow.

nikonosis · #17 02/28/2006, 12:05 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by mpdharley
I like the sand from Pure Aragonite because of it's size and composition. It was also quite a bit cheaper than some of the other substrates out there (except for Southdown, which I could not find).

As for the storms, I haven't had one, except when I point a power head directly at the substrate. And that didn't last long once I removed the power head.

One note though. I just tried to go their website and now their domain name has expired and is awaiting renewal or cancellation. So, I don't know if the company is still around. I'll be checking for their site later today/tomorrow.

The web page still works for me... Are you sure that your isp just hasn't updated their dhcp server?

mpdharley · #18 02/28/2006, 12:51 PM

Interesting. I've checked it from various DNS servers in the US and get the same result. The name keeps coming back as an alias to resalehost.networksolutions.com.

Very interesting. Probably something just got corrupted in DNS land and the fix hasn't caught up yet. I'll check again tomorrow. Thanks for letting me know.

nikonosis · #19 02/28/2006, 01:08 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by mpdharley
Interesting. I've checked it from various DNS servers in the US and get the same result. The name keeps coming back as an alias to resalehost.networksolutions.com.

Very interesting. Probably something just got corrupted in DNS land and the fix hasn't caught up yet. I'll check again tomorrow. Thanks for letting me know.

actually your right, i just checked it again, half hour after i said it was working and now its giving me the domain name renewal page.

tbass · #20 03/01/2006, 11:59 PM

I have had a DSB for yrs . It works for me ..... I think the BB is missing something.... Oh yea sand ....

grochmal · #21 03/02/2006, 10:53 AM

I went the BB route.
I like the NNR benefits of a DSB, but that's about it.
Sand looks good on the bottom when it's new and clean but almost every tank with sand I've seen locally starts to look dirty after a while and is more aesthetically unappealing to me than bare glass.
I get to see the detritus that collects on mine (yes, even with lots of flow - two tunze 6100's) and can't imagine letting that collect unseen on a DSB.
Since I can see mine, I just siphon it out every so often.

I spend my time looking at my fish and coral, not the sand.

s10willy · #22 03/02/2006, 11:56 AM

I picked up a Diamond Goby to clean the sand for me. I've had it about 6 months now. It keeps my sand looking like new.

GoldStripe · #23 03/02/2006, 12:57 PM

s10willy, do you have your tank covered? I bought a diamond goby not too long ago and in less than 2 days he jumped. I even had the egg crate stuff on top and he jumped through that and landed on top of it. I've never been able to keep a jawfish / goby for more than a few weeks.

s10willy · #24 03/02/2006, 01:19 PM

I've got a canopy that is open in the back. The goby was in the tank for less than fivrminutes when it decided to up and out the back. I already had some mesh set aside for this since I lost a lawnmower blenny a little before, so I went ahead and attached that to the back with a slight overhang back into the tank. No casualties since.

woodstockaz · #25 03/03/2006, 02:31 AM

Sweet. Fish safety net.