Fresh Restart. Sand or No Sand?

Robertellis30 · May 23, 2021

A while back I saw a thread about the pros and cons of using sand compared to no sand. Can’t for life of me find it. Any one possibly have the thread link?

moved into my new house about 2 months ago and finally to the point where I’ll be setting back up my 300xl. Just a few details to think over still. Like to have sand or not.

IKD · May 23, 2021

Robertellis30 said:
A while back I saw a thread about the pros and cons of using sand compared to no sand. Can’t for life of me find it. Any one possibly have the thread link?

moved into my new house about 2 months ago and finally to the point where I’ll be setting back up my 300xl. Just a few details to think over still. Like to have sand or not.

This one from BRStv maybe?

brandon429 · May 23, 2021

this should help

consider these details:

how large are these threads/decent sample size of large tanks? yes. very large. shows likelihood over months running.

interspersed with perfect tanks, the tanks you read about where sand behaves perfectly

but how many of these examples are those types of tanks? as you can see, the far majority have problems with sand over time, and we had to develop careful means of working with that aging. consider just these two threads for how your sandbed is 90% likely to manifest:

" MY WHITE SAND METHOD "

I've always talked about this in the fb groups because i get so many questions and compliments on my sand bed ....well here's my method....note: I've never tried this on a tank older than 3 years !!!! I'm well aware of the problems that can occur on older tanks...this is a "DAILY" method i use...

www.reef2reef.com

Official Sand Rinse and Tank Transfer thread

If you are reading this thread to cure a tank invasion from a link I sent you, we do not need to identify your type of invasion here we do not need you to test anything at anytime regarding nitrate, phosphate etc Above all, we do not need to see a microscope slide picture of your invasion at...

www.reef2reef.com

dvgyfresh · May 23, 2021

It’s preference tbh pros and cons to both , I like sand , can have more species that use sand and good filter/ house for micro fauna

Fishguy530 · May 23, 2021

+1 on the BRS videos. I ended up going with sand (Caribsea sea special grade).

Robertellis30 · May 23, 2021

That’s for the links and input. Cuts down the research time a ton!

brandon429 · May 23, 2021

I think the reported patterns are just gold. We can see in summary for link one, that we pre rinse the sand to total cloudlessness and then they stick stir it to prevent buildup right at the start.

and then below link #2 is dealing with all conventional reefs when they’re packed with waste but not mixed up or disturbed. Our first few links are examples of total losses from sand problems in beds allowed to sit and build up, and the rest of the fifty pages is showing how we clean all systems back to cloudlessness in order to effect safe moves and invasion fixes.

in between options you can see some folks never have to do either and their tank works great. Those are the type that usually win five bucks or better on most scratchoff attempts. When I try it the gas station just gets my money.

Kfactor · May 23, 2021

On all my old tank I ran bb and loved it so easy to clean and way not . On my new tank I went with sand there are fish I want to keep but couldn’t with no sand . I think it will just be a little more work but I enjoy cleaning my tank and keepin it clean as I can

hyeclass · Sep 2, 2021

sand is not for lazy people, if you lazy go with Bare Bottom. i see so many successful tanks using sand.

LeftCoastBling · Sep 2, 2021

The main thing I’ve seen with BB is the start up is a longer process? Thought it was mainly for high flow tanks. Could be wrong thou, I’m also doing a ton of research as I’m getting back into the hobby

ReefBeta · Sep 2, 2021

hyeclass said:
sand is not for lazy people, if you lazy go with Bare Bottom. i see so many successful tanks using sand.

bare bottom is not for lazy people either. That pocket of detritus gather so fast that you will need to either be diligent in siphon it out couple times a week, or learn to tolerate looking at that pocket of poop for the most time.