opinions on Bare bottoms tanks or Deep sand bed

[mr_anderson]

I am currently running a 55 gallon with BB on my main tank. I have a 15 gallon refugum with a deep sand bed w/chaeto. I have to admit that my nitrates are undetectable and am very happy with this setup. However, I recently bought a 120 gallon and the guy who sold me the tank also gave me all his sand. I would say 3" deep in the 120. I'm looking for some opinions on going bare or with the sand on this new setup.

questions:
1. is it true that Deep sand beds have a life expectantcy of ~ 3-5 years and need to be removed afterwards?


Thanks ahead for the responds guys.

[rigleautomotive]

IME yes,they foul eventually becoming a nutrien sink.i am staying away from them as of now.i went back and forth for about a decade.now i am back to bare bottom.

[hahnmeister]

Not if you actually make a plenum... then they can last forever.

[chrissreef]

sand is like dating the head cheerleader...

you either get a really nice prize

or your life is over when she's done with you!

jk, bad analogy? I was BB in my old 75 and loved it... sand was in so i tried on my 30g... it worked, for a while but then things stopped growing as fast. I had to move so took the tank down (no algae or any problems)... and when i moved the sand it was just gross. It made me wonder if that's how some people's arteries look like!

[HBtank]

In the end both have been very successful. I would stick to well known and very experienced authors/research on this subject and then decide based on that information and asthetics. Both are good, anyone telling you otherwise is just pushing their personal opinion on you and not fact. Just like many things in this hobby, for some their way is the only way...

[Arthur1]

Chris thats my experience lol. But back to the subject (still laughing) My favorite tank that I ever set up I made a deep sand bed but for many reasons I stick with the shallow ones now. This subject will be debated for many years and there is a lot of fine print in both. But if you tend to your tank more frequently than not and have a good set up to begin with, I'd say the shallow. Have fun.

[DrBegalke]

IMO it depends on the type of system. I prefer BB for SPS tanks, but for other systems I use sand.

[TrojanScott]

I've yet to meet anyone who's had a system "crash" due to a DSB. Urban legend IMO.

[hahnmeister]

So just because you havent seen it means it doesnt exist, eh? Wow.

[JamesJR]

IME, I find that the DSB method is tricky to do correctly as the sand eventually gets full of all kinds of junk. No matter how much current, few fish, cuttind down on the feeding and clean up crews I use I have always ended up having trouble with the sand bed. I go Bare bottomed on every marine tank I set up now and I can use all the current I want and the tank stay spotless.

[HBtank]

Originally posted by hahnmeister
So just because you havent seen it means it doesnt exist, eh? Wow.

Then show him hahn.....

Because I have yet to see any proven correlation. Just speculation.

Crashes happen in every kind of tank. They are just deemed as "mysterious" in tanks without DSB's

[Mavrk]

Originally posted by JamesJR
I have always ended up having trouble with the sand bed.

Would you mind elaborating on the kinds of trouble you had?

[cloak]

Maybe the aquarist is to blame. Whether it's DSB or BB.

[datablitz]

ive seen it happen multiple times in differnt peoples tanks. typically you get necrotic areas in the sand bed, then you end up creating hydrogen sulfide, lowering your ph and sucking oxygen out of the tank, you generally end up with lots of algae problems, and bad luck with corals/fish due to the lack of oxygen/low ph.

[JamesJR]

The tank just always seemed to go downhill after about 4 years or so. The corals seemed to grow less, algae started to become harder to manage and the sand would end up getting back inside the rock structure which made detritus elimination harder.

In theory I agree with what sand beds can do: make places for all sorts of fauna, allowing for nitrate reduction and so forth. I have just found it difficult to do in practice over long periods of time. I would consider using a remote sand bed but not in the main display.

[mille239]

oh no, not this debate....... again.

[Craig Lambert]

I think dsb's are often times the blame rather than the cause. I've read threads here about dsb's crashing in a year or less. I don't believe that's possible. There are also people here who have had dsb's in place for many years without any trouble.

[rigleautomotive]

the only proof i have is 20 years of switching back and forth,from sand to BB.every time sand beds get good press a bunch of people switch.than after a few years they get the sense it is causing problems and it gets removed.i have done this at least 4 times through the years and each time removing the bed gives me positive results.i guess if you give the sand bed alot of attention and perform regular maintenence you could make it work long term,but i have not been able to do this.so for me ,i am BB

[spike78]

A correctly implemented sand bed does not have a limited life expectancy. There are several implementations of DSB's that are healthy after ten or more years. The problems people have with sand beds after a certain amount of time have either implemented the strategy incorrectly or are missing other critical aspects of sand bed husbandry, either from adding inappropriate livestock, not maintaining appropriate infaunal populations, or not having enough flow over the bed.

I would say that the amount of required maintenance on a good sand bed is no more, maybe even less than what is needed with a bare bottomed tank.

The moral of the story is to do some research before making a decision. A good place to start would be:

http://www.ronshimek.com/Deep%20Sand%20Beds.htm and
http://www.wetwebmedia.com/deepsandbeds.htm

[rigleautomotive]

bare bottoms require no maintenence or special fauna.

[Frick-n-Frags]

My only thought when reading the title of this thread was:

"He just stirred up a big, really old, DSB right here"

[goldmaniac]

I've used a caulerpa refugium for about 6 years, and I've seen that when I replace half (the left-half or the right-half) of the Kent BioSubstrate in the refugium about every 12 mohths, the tank is greatly improved. I have between 3" and 4" inches of sand in the 24" x 16" refugium.

I have no more than a 1" in the display tank, and that is only for looks.

I've never known of any crash, I have no skimmer and Nitrates are below 2 or 3, usually.

Right now I have about 2 trashcans of man made cement live rock, curing, and when I put all that in the display, I'm taking out my display sand and putting in a pvc/eggcrate base for the rock, to distribute weight. I may not put any sand back and go BB in the display. It's been a while since I got tired of the BB look.

[spike78]

Originally posted by rigleautomotive
bare bottoms require no maintenence or special fauna.

Really? The elusive maintenanceless tank? Awesome!! I need one of those!

[twon8]

either method works, and i personally run one of each

regardless of that, i wouldn't use someone else's sand. buy new sand, maybe a cup of the old sand to seed

[TrojanScott]

Originally posted by hahnmeister
So just because you havent seen it means it doesnt exist, eh? Wow.

IMO = In my opinion, as clearly typed in my post.