Bare bottom tank vs sand bed

[Calireefer92]

hey guys wanted to get everyone’s opinion on bare bottom tank vs sand bed. The reason I’m asking is because I’m dealing with high nitrate levels and I’ve tried the microbactor 7 and Red Sea nopox and still can’t seem to get it down even with water changes. I’m just wondering if I get rid of my sand bed it would help.

 

[wattson]

The biggest mistake I made in having a reef tank was wasting money and putting sand in it,,the best thing I did in having a reef tank was taking all the sand out and went bare bottom and not looking back at the unnecessary nightmare work of sand.

 

[Calireefer92]

The biggest mistake I made in having a reef tank was wasting money and putting sand in it,,the best thing I did in having a reef tank was taking all the sand out and went bare bottom and not looking back at the unnecessary nightmare work of sand.

Would that help my nitrate? By a lot or does it not do anything with it?

 

[Saveafish]

The biggest mistake I made in having a reef tank was wasting money and putting sand in it,,the best thing I did in having a reef tank was taking all the sand out and went bare bottom and not looking back at the unnecessary nightmare work of sand.

+1

 

[Calireefer92]

+1

How do I go about removing it?

 

[Saveafish]

It helps tons. Look at it like this. How many with baredottom tanks do you see having problems with green hair phosphate or nitrate?

 

[Saveafish]

Very slowly. Little at a time. You disturbing it to much will make it angry. Syphon a little out every couple days.

 

[Calireefer92]

Very slowly. Little at a time. You disturbing it to much will make it angry.

Thanks I’ll remove some at a time when I do my water change

 

[Saveafish]

Once you have bare bottom, you wont ever sand it again.

 

[Daniel Waters]

I think it depends on how deep your sand bed is and how well you maintain it. I have done bare bottom and sand. Bare bottom is certainly cleaner and easier maintenance wise, but I like the look of sand and I like my wrasses that like to burrow at night....and I have a sand sifting goby that I love!

Now whether your sand bed is the source of your elevated nutrients, that is the true question. Is it possible there are other factors, such as bio load, feeding practices, too small of a skimmer, and so forth? In other words, if you have a lot of big fish or a lot of fish in general for your size tank, your nutrients may stay elevated regardless if you got rid of your sand or not. Most people starting in this hobby I think tend to over stock their tanks. This may not be your issue, but just offering an alternative view.

 

[wattson]

remove some sand with a siphon hose during your water change schedule,,if it is deep then siphon the area from the top of sand to the bottom of tank glass,,repeat every water change..do a search here on the forum.
my tanks are all zoa/palys with high nutrients and stupid crazy flow,,sand doesnt have a chance of staying still verses the flow I have found out that zoas/palys need,,really need ..
plus i can controll levels of nutrients to some gree better without sand nutrient algae outbreak PO4 crazy sandstorm disturbing headache too much work sand bed.
Just be sure to check the rest of your system to rule out if you have another area that is a nutrient sink too..

 

[Calireefer92]

remove some sand with a siphon hose during your water change schedule,,if it is deep then siphon the area from the top of sand to the bottom of tank glass,,repeat every water change..do a search here on the forum.
my tanks are all zoa/palys with high nutrients and stupid crazy flow,,sand doesnt have a chance of staying still verses the flow I have found out that zoas/palys need,,really need ..
plus i can controll levels of nutrients to some gree better without sand nutrient algae outbreak PO4 crazy sandstorm disturbing headache too much work sand bed.
Just be sure to check the rest of your system to rule out if you have another area that is a nutrient sink too..

So on my tank is 112 gallon Red Sea 425 with a deep sand bed I have 2 damsels. The reason for very low livestock is my fish keeped dying so my lfs told me to try some filters. I have a aquamaxx fc-80 skimmer no3 brick and no3 plate in the sump and 2 maxspect gyre

 

[Halal Hotdog]

I think it all depends on taste, I am not a fan of how a bare bottom looks. It is not very difficult managing a shallow sand bed to keep nitrates and phosphates low. The only reason people feel it is a nutrient sink is due to the fact you cannot run heavy flow through it. With a bare bottom there is not such a large area for decaying food and waste to accumulate. I carbon dose and use lanthanum chloride. Helps keep both nitrates and phosphates very manageable. One big positive with bare bottom is you can go insane with the flow while keeping SPS. This will keep your rocks very clean. I keep mostly LPS so being bare bottom would not benefit me, as very high flow would end up killing most of my LPS.

 

[DSC reef]

We ran bare bottom for years and sand beds. I have to disagree with removing sand will solve all your nitrate, phosphate and algae problems. Grew just as much algae with bare bottom. That comes down to export of nutrients, your bioload, maintenance routine. Give some info on your tank and maybe we can help with your nitrate issues.

#reefsquad

 

[SPR1968]

Information and maybe a picture of your tank would help, but I don't think taking the sand bed out will make any significant difference to your nutrient levels. As to whether to have sand, its a personal choice, I prefer the look but that's just me.

You need to have systems in place to deal with nutrient export otherwise it will just keep building back up again. The simplest way to reduce Nitrate is water changes, but without other methods in place nutrients will just build back up again so you would need to keep doing these

If you can get the biological filtration in your tank working for you, such as increased rockwork, Seachem Matrix (i now use this), Marine Pure etc., this will help. As the bacteria populate the rocks or whatever you use, this will start reducing your nitrate levels. The Nopox should also then work better which is basically a method of carbon dosing. You feed the bacteria, it multiplies and then converts the nitrates for you. Once you have systems in place just increase the Nopox dose very slowly until the nitrate starts to come down. If you get any bacterial blooms or white slim, just back off the Nopox dose a little

Once you have the systems for nutrient export in place, life becomes much easier.

 

[NY_Caveman]

+1 ^ on both the above

I have a bare bottom with low nutrients and still have had all kinds of algae. I am not a fan of sand though. Never was. I understand the aesthetic value. It does not do much but collect waste (unless you want sand dwelling critters). No one notices the lack of sand in my tank. They look at the livestock.

How old is your system?

 

[Waters]

I am in the process of removing my sand now. Generally I don't like BB tanks, but my tank has matured enough with coral growth that you can't see much of the bottom anyways......especially after I cover everything with more coral Looking forward to not having any substrate maintenance.

 

[phixman]

I have a 20 gallon reef with deepsand , 2 fish and a lot of sps , and softies . I has been up for about 2 year. It’s really hard for me to keep nutrients up, they are always going to 0. I just began transferring everything to my Red Sea 350, and decided to go bare bottom .

 

[Retro Reefer]

had a bare bottom tank at one time and I hated it, while I do agree sand beds can be nutrient traps especially deep ones I do not like the aesthetics of bare bottom tanks and there are many positives to having sand such as its a huge bio filter, its buffering ability, light deflection for a brighter tank with less shaded areas, home for bottom dwellers sand sifters, some LPS do better in a sand bed such as scoly’s, Trachyphyllias and fungia’s and IMO looks so much better than bare bottom.. these days I just run enough to cover glass and I will syphon out sections that seem to be trapping dirt and replace it with new.

 

[saintsreturn]

I have ran "traditional" style for years and do not have an issue with what you are describing. Personally, i believe that ULM tanks need sand to do its job. I have seen some BB tanks that use sand in the sump (much larger sumps than normally found under stands) to offset its value but keeping the display clean. I run high output through my sump and return with two MP10's on 60% on my 110g tall. I dont dose and do semi annual water changes. By playing around with my flow angles, i do not get sand blowing around my tank and have lots of sand movers (one is super annoying right now).

My largest concern, is without dosing or finding additional nutrient processing options, i do not have faith in the longevity of BB tanks. I look forward to watching some of the absolutely beautiful BB tanks over the next few years to see how they hold up with time. But for now, I enjoy my system and take it easy with major changes all the way down to the location of where i put coral.

This is just my opinion and experience, i have a tank that has been moved more than i want to admit that has been running in different setups for over 8 years and my "new" one has the same media now going on 3 years. No dosing and minimal only 1 water change since its move. The only reason i did the WC, was to give "dirty" water to a startup system i did over the weekend.