DSB vs Bare bottom

[Reefzzz]

Hi fellow Reefers,

For my reef tank, i am debating whether to place sand on the tank bottom....signzzz.. been thinking of this for several days...

My considerations as follows:

[1] After seeing some friends' reef tank having dirty sand bed, i am having doubt if i want to place sand.

[2] Is keeping the sand bed clean ever possible in a reef tank?

[3] What kind of sand or gravel and size is recommended?? Very fine sand looks nice... Is that recommended?

Help needed.....

[Alvin Tan]

Hi fellow Reefers,

For my reef tank, i am debating whether to place sand on the tank bottom....signzzz.. been thinking of this for several days...

My considerations as follows:

[1] After seeing some friends' reef tank having dirty sand bed, i am having doubt if i want to place sand.

[2] Is keeping the sand bed clean ever possible in a reef tank?

[3] What kind of sand or gravel and size is recommended?? Very fine sand looks nice... Is that recommended?

Help needed.....

This topic have been discussed several time, try to do a search for more information.

I will jus state a few points IMO about DSB and BB. I am a barebottom user and I support the idea..

Deep Sand Bed:

1)Good for the start.

2)Water will be stabilize in a more faster rate.

3)Dirt and detritus will be trap on the surface of the sandbed.

There will be dead spots in every tank, so I am sure you cannt possibly siphon off the detritus fully. Prolong period, nitrates will increase follow by phosphate. You will face the algae problem and most likely brown algae growing on the sand bed.

After lets say 6mths, a layer of dirt will cover the sandbed and cause the sandbed to get clogged. After that, water can no longer pass through the sand bed and this is the so called anaerobic process???(think is something like this). When water can no longer pass through the sandbed, the whole sandbed will be like a toxic layer and it is like a time bomb. If happen that 1 day u accidentally stir up the sandbed or fishes may do that. The whole system may crash.

Bare Bottom:

1) Detritus and dirt will be visible on the base

2) Proper siphoning must be done to clear those ...

3) Proper pipings and optimum water flow to ensure that 75% of the dirt will get into the overflow and the rest you will have to do the siphoning job yourself.

So far I have used a 2-3inch sand bed and a bare bottom at my 2feet tank. The reading is clear. This time, using the barebottom my water parameters greatly improve. Without using much equipments, jus a ordinary skimmer.

The last time i test my water parameters using tropic marin testkits which was about 3-4 wks ago for nitrate and phosphate is:

Nitrate : >1mg

Phosphate : 0.3mg

I consider this good already because I dun use equipments to eliminate them and it is still cosidered low. Of course there are much much more to debate on this topic but I jus state my own point of view over here.

Cheers..

[cdckjn]

3)Dirt and detritus will be trap on the surface of the sandbed.

There will be dead spots in every tank, so I am sure you cannt possibly siphon off the detritus fully. Prolong period, nitrates will increase follow by phosphate. You will face the algae problem and most likely brown algae growing on the sand bed.

After lets say 6mths, a layer of dirt will cover the sandbed and cause the sandbed to get clogged. After that, water can no longer pass through the sand bed and this is the so called anaerobic process???(think is something like this). When water can no longer pass through the sandbed, the whole sandbed will be like a toxic layer and it is like a time bomb. If happen that 1 day u accidentally stir up the sandbed or fishes may do that. The whole system may crash.

Er, then when the sandbed gets clogged, then how??? how to clear up the sandbed. My 2ft tank is something like this, and I have a black sea cucumber whcih is trying to clear uop the dirt, and I think I will be having a phosphate probelm as the brown hair algae is growing everywhere. I intend to use a cansister, then rescape and trying to make the dirt flow up and then hopefully the cansister can clean up much of the water. Any comments how best to clean the dirty sandbed?

[Kenji80]

get a sand dollar.

[Reefzzz]

Thanks bros for all your opinion & comments…

Maybe I just place sand on the front portion of the tank leaving those areas under the LR as bare bottom. I observed that LR produce an awful lot of brown dirty powder and very unsightly. I hope by having this arrangement, I can siphon those brown stuffs out of the tank…

Cheers…

[Alvin Tan]

Thanks bros for all your opinion & comments…

Maybe I just place sand on the front portion of the tank leaving those areas under the LR as bare bottom. I observed that LR produce an awful lot of brown dirty powder and very unsightly. I hope by having this arrangement, I can siphon those brown stuffs out of the tank…

Cheers…

its impossible to do that unless u put something to block it.. but it will affect ur rockscape....

somehow, those sand will manage to land on some place in ur tank when there is current..

[mansiz]

IMO, I would suggest you to put a sand bed. It doesn't have to be DSB, just a thin layer will do. It will help in the whole eco system. You do not have to be afraid of dirty sand bed, there are lots of sea creatures that help to clean up the sand bed. E.g Black sea cucumber, snails, hermit crabs and even shrimps. Especially black sea cucumber, it is a very very good and important invert to invest if you want to keep your sand bed white and clean.

[decentkid]

the denitrification process has 3 kinds of bacteria, one that converts ammonia to nitrite, another that converts nitrite to nitrate and the third that converts nitrate to nitrogen.

DSB works in such a way it facilitates this. the denitrifying bacteria that converts nitrate to nitrogen works in an anaerobic environment. so when a DSB is thick, the bacteria that converts ammonia to nitrite and nitrite to nitrate lives in the upper region of the DSB where it is rich in oxygen. as it goes down, oxygen lvls decreases hence creating an optimal environment for denitrifying bacteria to convert nitrates to nitrogen.

hence DSB seldom have nitrate problems but do face phosphate problems.

with BB, u will need a strong skimmer to remove DOS as it is your primary mode of filtration.

[mansiz]

But please do note that if you are to place a DSB in the main tank itself, it could bring you more cons than pros. You CANNOT have any wrasses or any living sea creatures that dwell into the sand, if you have them, the DSB won't be able to mutured and it will be a waste of time and $. And in other words, if you were to let the sand mutured, probably around 6 months, and you accidentally bought a wrasse, it could be chaotic and your whole tank could be wrack by it. For DSB, it is always recommended to place it in the sump, if you wish to place in the main tank, either you make sure that you do not place any fishes/invert to disturb it or you may want to choose to have a shallow sand bed.

[hammy]

as for mi , i just have a thin layer of hydrocarbonate as my substrate .

i dun like BB for aestatic purposes, somehow a bit weird.

i dun like DSB, it take forever to work and is a time bomb for hydrogen sulphide buildup.

[asg]

if you choose BB, then make sure you dont keep those LS that require sand bed as part of their life style... it is sad to see LS like blue cheek goby (which it nature include shifting sand for food) living in BB tank...

another idea is to cover the bottom with skin-like coral i.e. star polpy, etc but it is more chanllenging....

in a well kept tank, there shall not be another dirt covering the sand...

[gunzo]

get a set of cleaning crew .. I find BB abit .. bare

a 1 to 2" layer of sand makes an aquarium that much nicer (to me)

I have 3 sanddollars flattening the sandbed every nite so its white and flat every morning I have a huge brittle that clears most of the craps, 1 strombus and 4 landscape artistes (pistol shrimps) that rescapes the sand during the day ..

[piero]

Just wonder if its difficult to make the rock scape stay stable with a BB? How to make it solid with no huge risk of falling?