More sand.. Yay or Nay?

[peterire]

Beginner and Reefer 350 owner here. I'm still cycling and hopefully at the end of it. But my question is about sand depth.

My LFS said around 1cm or a bit higher is what you should aim for.

So thats what I have roughly in the tank now. Some areas are much deeper because the wavemakers are pushing sand around a bit (you can kind of see in this pic there is no sand at the back centrally)

Buy my question is, will having a low level of sand restrict me getting any sand dwelling livestock in future?

Having a deeper sand bed does look better I think, but I believe its hard to keep clean etc.?

If I was to add more, am I right in assuming its better to do it now before I add fish..

What do you think?

 

[fishguy242]

hi welcome to the reef going to love it here!!
lots of fun/info/fun/help/fun....
nice tank..i prefer bare bottom myself,others will chime in with opinions,agree little sand does stop you from getting some creatures

 

[najer]

I would add more now, I like a minimum of 2.5 cm, certain wrasse will need areas of at least 5 cm.

 

[RichtheReefer21]

Asthetically I think the depth looks good where it is at now in the picture. You can always add more sand later if you please, but this is a hotly debated topic. Sandbed depth, or no sand at all.

A well proportioned sand-based clean up crew will aid in the maintanence of the bed itself. Nessarius snails dwell in the sand bed and keep it churned up for me. You can also balance it out with sand sifting gobies, conches, sand sifting stars, and all types of other creatures.

A large majority of wrasse sleep in the sand, covered completely. There are also coral which are considered to prefer the sand over a bare bottom.

So in a nutshell, your livestock and fish choices are the true deciding factors when deliberating sand bed depth, if any at all.

There is a level of sandbed depth that also can provide a natural nutrient export via anaerobic bacteria. But that requires a 4+" depth. Much more than most are willing to deal with.

Others ive encountered also maintain a deeper bed via syphoning during wc's, and its also been good practice by some to replace their sandbeds after long periods in small sections, over time, with success.

Hope this gives a bit of insight, and hopefully more shall pitch in throughout the day.

Beautiful scape and system, cant go wrong with red sea. Good luck goin forward, welcome to the best salt home ull ever need.

 

[lanna]

Asthetically I think the depth looks good where it is at now in the picture. You can always add more sand later if you please, but this is a hotly debated topic. Sandbed depth, or no sand at all.

A well proportioned sand-based clean up crew will aid in the maintanence of the bed itself. Nessarius snails dwell in the sand bed and keep it churned up for me. You can also balance it out with sand sifting gobies, conches, sand sifting stars, and all types of other creatures.

A large majority of wrasse sleep in the sand, covered completely. There are also coral which are considered to prefer the sand over a bare bottom.

So in a nutshell, your livestock and fish choices are the true deciding factors when deliberating sand bed depth, if any at all.

There is a level of sandbed depth that also can provide a natural nutrient export via anaerobic bacteria. But that requires a 4+" depth. Much more than most are willing to deal with.

Others ive encountered also maintain a deeper bed via syphoning during wc's, and its also been good practice by some to replace their sandbeds after long periods in small sections, over time, with success.

Hope this gives a bit of insight, and hopefully more shall pitch in throughout the day.

Beautiful scape and system, cant go wrong with red sea. Good luck goin forward, welcome to the best salt home ull ever need.

Wow! reading this feed & particularly this reply gave me a jolt of something that has been bouncing around quite a bit in the back of my skull
7mths in & I have found myself (after many mistakes) to be a soft coral gal... Then I have dolloped the tank with sandsifters...gobies, starfish, wrasse, zombies & other snails etc etc
Then add a cup of a some kind of 'Mae West' fish (flashy, pretty, colourful, bold, brass or just a plain old bad guy that everyone loves).. I finally settled on a 2 small eels.
They move amazingly, my clean up crew don't fit in their mouths & they tidy up the huge mess eels love to make when they feed! I simply love the eco system!

But the point of this war & peace reply is that I have found (in my limited experience) because of the path my tank has taken more, more, more, more & more sand. I have a depths of up to 3inches in places atm but want more to fill & my crew loves it, it's crystal clean, HEALTHY & in my opinion looks awesome because my babies build me new sand castles everyday and of course I loose a bit though natural attrition.

But anyways, love the setup dude, have fun & good luck finding whatever groove makes U mesmerised whenever U glance at her

 

[RichtheReefer21]

Wow! reading this feed & particularly this reply gave me a jolt of something that has been bouncing around quite a bit in the back of my skull
7mths in & I have found myself (after many mistakes) to be a soft coral gal... Then I have dolloped the tank with sandsifters...gobies, starfish, wrasse, zombies & other snails etc etc
Then add a cup of a some kind of 'Mae West' fish (flashy, pretty, colourful, bold, brass or just a plain old bad guy that everyone loves).. I finally settled on a 2 small eels.
They move amazingly, my clean up crew don't fit in their mouths & they tidy up the huge mess eels love to make when they feed! I simply love the eco system!

But the point of this war & peace reply is that I have found (in my limited experience) because of the path my tank has taken more, more, more, more & more sand. I have a depths of up to 3inches in places atm but want more to fill & my crew loves it, it's crystal clean, HEALTHY & in my opinion looks awesome because my babies build me new sand castles everyday and of course I loose a bit though natural attrition.

But anyways, love the setup dude, have fun & good luck finding whatever groove makes U mesmerised whenever U glance at her

The first reef we build is typically a learning curve. Usually the plan changes and lessons hit home, forcing adaptations to keep things balanced in the ecosystem. In the end, we all end up with completely unique and diverse reefs. Almost like our own little evolution at home that is like no other reef on earth. Life finds a way