Are the sps heavy hitters using sand bed?

[MattL22]

I know this has been beaten to death but I wanna see what the sps heavy hitters r doing currently !
I'm leaning towards going bare bottom for 2 reasons i

 

[MattL22]

I ran bb on my 40 breeder and I never once had algae issue and maintenance was very easy and I could get lots flow !

I'm setting up a long term 225 and I'm torn please list ur thoughts

 

[MattL22]

I do really like the look of sand and really enjoy fish that love sand bed

 

[FMF0331]

My 200 gallon tank is loaded with sps. I have a 2" sand bed, no problems here

 

[MattL22]

How long has it been running?

 

[Addicting Corals]

sand is possible but it is easier without

 

[cmaxwell39]

I prefer the look of a sand bed, but I sometimes get really frustrated trying to keep it clean and keep it from blowing around everywhere. There are positives and negatives both ways.

 

[FMF0331]

It's been running approx 2 yrs - matt22 you're more than welcome to drop by ( pm me ) you were the one that got me hooked on sps .. When i first purchased sps from you in garden city

 

[turnerd4]

I have a 2"-3" sandbed. However, I only have sand in the front of my tank where it is easy to get to and clean. I bought some rock from marcorocks.com that has a saw cut on one side. I put that in the back and middle part of my tank and mortared it together. It makes cleaning the sandbed easier since it is towards the front of my tank. I kind of have the best of both worlds.

 

[-Logzor]

I highly recommend going bare bottom. Sand in my opinion causes nothing but problems for a long-term sps tank. In many cases, the sandbed will eventually harden into concrete, after 3 years or so anyways.

 

[Liquid360]

Some love maintaining a tank. Is it something to do or something to look at or a mixture of both? Personally I love the upkeep. I like the routine. Also I believe sand serves a purpose. Do you prefer a rock garden or a yard?

 

[stylaster]

Running bb on my 312 gallon sps tank. Been up and going for 6 months. Most of the livestock was moved over from a 120g tank that was also bb for 4 years

 

[cdness]

I have been running sane since I started. I don't like the look of bare bottom tanks. The sand is a shallow bed for aesthetics only...

 

[rideit6578]

I have a thin sand bed on mine Matt. I like the natural look and also gives a place for the wrasses to go at night.

 

[dknuckles]

I had a 3"+ SB in my old DT for about 5yrs w/o any problem related to SB
QT system is BB just for ease of any forseen Tx that may be needed.

 

[e.litvin]

Has anyone every painted the bottom of the bottom glass an off white color to give off the look of sand? Similar how people paint the back glass blue/black you get the point.. lol

Ive been thinking of going bare bottom but also like the look of sand and thought maybe this was a solution someone came up with???

 

[-Logzor]

Has anyone every painted the bottom of the bottom glass an off white color to give off the look of sand? Similar how people paint the back glass blue/black you get the point.. lol

Ive been thinking of going bare bottom but also like the look of sand and thought maybe this was a solution someone came up with???

Well at the beginning you could setup a sandbed and then just dump in massive amount of buffer until it turned to concrete. Of course this is before any livestock goes in. This often happens overtime anyways, happened to my tank and two others in the area. Then you essentially have a solid bottom with the look of sand. The issue is that now algae can grow on it.

 

[revhtree Verified Admin]

We need some FTS pics to go with those that comment.

 

[MattL22]

Yes some pics would be great !!
I wanna hear from the guys that have a fully grown in sps tank and sps is the main focus in the tank because that is what I hope to do with this tank !!!

 

[MattL22]

stand