Bare bottom vs fine sand

[reefviper101]

Hi all

Need your advise trying to deside have fine tan sand 1/4 in thick 4 power heads so sand won't stay in place thinking take itt out any adive


The reefviper

 

[Ron Reefman]

If you are going to have sand, I'd do more than 1/4".

 

[Rjukan]

The biggest regret I have with my system is my choice of sand. I went too fine and it's been nothing but a source of headache from the get go. Main issue is no matter how low you set your pumps it will blow up on the rock at some time or another, which gives fuel for GHA and cyano to get a foothold. Recently I've been blowing the rock off every couple days, but it's a losing battle.

I've been kicking around the idea of siphoning out my sand bed and replacing it with a much more coarse grade substrate.

 

[j.falk]

You could always layer a larger grained sand on top to hold the smaller sized sand in place.

 

[PatW]

If you have high flow a coarser grade sand will stay put. You can run bare bottom. A bare bottom is easy to clean. But a number of fish like to have sand.

 

[Rjukan]

You could always layer a larger grained sand on top to hold the smaller sized sand in place.

This doesn't work, I know from experience. Over time the heavier sand works it's way down and it becomes mixed, with the fine sand once again becoming waterborne.

 

[Z-man]

I love my bare bottom tank. Super easy to siphon the junk out and see the dead zones. I put a layer of starboard down to protect the glass. Comes in white or black.

 

[j.falk]

This doesn't work, I know from experience. Over time the heavier sand works it's way down and it becomes mixed, with the fine sand once again becoming waterborne.

Then keep adding a heavier grain until there is more of it than the fine stuff. LOL

 

[j.falk]

@Ron Reefman - You're telling me that you couldn't put a thicker layer of heavier grained sand over a piddily 1/4th layer of fine sand and have it hold it in place? The only problem I could potentially see is if there was something in the tank burrowing through the sand to stir it up all the time. Well...that and siphoning...that could cause a dilemma. LOL

 

[92Miata]

I love my bare bottom tank. Super easy to siphon the junk out and see the dead zones. I put a layer of starboard down to protect the glass. Comes in white or black.

We've got two Nuvo40s in the house - one barebottom, one sand - and the barebottom one is just so much easier to 'tune'. Its less 'stable' in a way - but more responsive. IE, if my phosphates are .10 in the barebottom one, and I want them to be .05, I just siphon out anything I see and turkey baste for a couple days - and they drop to .05. The enormous buffer of bound phosphate in the sand in the other tank means dropping from .10 to .05 is weeks of work and lots of GFO.

I much prefer the more responsive tank.

I'd suggest white starboard over black - mine is black, but white is reflective and you'll get better coloration on the sides of your corals.

 

[Ron Reefman]

@Ron Reefman - You're telling me that you couldn't put a thicker layer of heavier grained sand over a piddily 1/4th layer of fine sand and have it hold it in place? The only problem I could potentially see is if there was something in the tank burrowing through the sand to stir it up all the time. Well...that and siphoning...that could cause a dilemma. LOL

That is exactly what I'm telling you. It will not work long term. The heavier course sand, will slowly over time, sink down into the fine grain sand and end up on the bottom. Others have tried it and it does not work.

 

[Erick Armanii]

That is exactly what I'm telling you. It will not work long term. The heavier course sand, will slowly over time, sink down into the fine grain sand and end up on the bottom. Others have tried it and it does not work.

I’ve tried it on my last tank and when I finally upgraded I drained the old tank and the sand was hard like concrete! I actually needed a masonry shovel to get it out of the tank so I could can and sell the tank!

This time around I went bare bottom. So much easier to clean and take care of. I would recommend it

 

[fishface NJ]

I’ve tried it on my last tank and when I finally upgraded I drained the old tank and the sand was hard like concrete! I actually needed a masonry shovel to get it out of the tank so I could can and sell the tank!

It is precipitation of calcium carbonate onto, and bridging grains of sand.

It is not good because the sand no longer functions as sand, but as a large rock. If that concerns you, it is a problem. if you do not mind the bottom being rock instead of sand, it only consumes some extra calcium and alkalinity.

Calcium and carbonate are supersaturated in normal ocean water, and greatly supersaturated in high alkalinity or high pH reef aquarium water. That means it wants to precipitate out if given a way to do it, and fresh sand surfaces are a good place, and once it starts it is harder to stop due to all the fresh surfaces constantly available.

 

[reefviper101]

@Ron Reefman - You're telling me that you couldn't put a thicker layer of heavier grained sand over a piddily 1/4th layer of fine sand and have it hold it in place? The only problem I could potentially see is if there was something in the tank burrowing through the sand to stir it up all the time. Well...that and siphoning...that could cause a dilemma. LOL

I'm not the one that posted that it was a reply to my thread

 

[Coralsdaily]

I used to have sugar grain size fine sand and learned the same lesson, that the wavemakers always pile them up in some corners. I'd recommend either change to aragonite (slightly larger grain) sand, or simply go bare bottom. I have one of my systems barebottom but pile some sand in the refugium.