Sand bed question

[pdiehm]

So, I recently set up my 120 to be a barebottom. A LFS told me to add sand, which will help feed corals, and allow them to grow. Additonally, he told me, never ever touch it. Don't stir it, don't vacuum it, there's CUC to do that for you. They'll eat the detritus, and such. Said he's got a 2" sandbed on his 300, that he hasn't touched in 10 years. Showed me a picture of the tank and it was absolutely stunning.

So he advised me to add the Hawaiian Arag-Alive Black sand and then to never touch it again. The depth would be 1-1.5".

Everything I've read says to stir it up and keep it clean, but from what he said is there's critters that will do that for me and by stirring/vacuuming, I didn't allow that sand system (for lack of a better term) establish and work.

 

[AcroNem]

I wouldn't listen to him. A sand bed (even with invertebrates helping) Will get funky eventually. If you vac your sand bed during water changes from the start you won't see any issues from it. If you wait a year and then start stirring or vaccing it...then you'll have problems. A sand bed definitively needs to be cared for by you as well as a clean up crew.

 

[Accio]

I dont stir my sand bed it just gets vacced every other wc or so but mome is very thin, like half a inch.

 

[Rufus’ goofs]

I agree with the above. Keep the sand clean.
You don't have to go in and literally stir it, or even do the whole thing at once. I usually only do about a 6 inch square about once a week.

Also, doing that kind of maintenance on a 300 gallon tank would be quite a challenge, and on top of that, he's probably able to maintain quite a lot more animals that will mess with the sand vs a significantly smaller tank. You may not have all the options for livestock that he has.

 

[AcroNem]

I would like to add. I'd say to vac the sand bed during a WC versus stirring. Your goal is to remove detritus, which does build up quickly no matter how much flow, clean up crew, or how big of a skimmer you have.

 

[FugeReefer]

This is my experience and only mine. (Just remember every tank is a different ecosystem) After having a 1.5 inch Hawaiian Black sand bed and not touching it for a year, based on similar advise to what you have received, I have done everything short of a total tank teardown to recover my reef.

I am very experienced with deep sand beds, how they work, and what maintenance should be performed and what shouldn't be done. My inexperience was in black sand.

Since then I have had black sand in another tank. It is 2 inches deep. I clean and turn the sand once a month and I have a robust CUC, just as before, I have had no other issues with black sand after.

 

[AcroNem]

This is my experience and only mine. (Just remember every tank is a different ecosystem) After having a 1.5 inch Hawaiian Black sand bed and not touching it for a year, based on similar advise to what you have received, I have done everything short of a total tank teardown to recover my reef.

I am very experienced with deep sand beds, how they work, and what maintenance should be performed and what shouldn't be done. My inexperience was in black sand.

Since then I have had black sand in another tank. It is 2 inches deep. I clean and turn the sand once a month and I have a robust CUC, just as before, I have had no other issues with black sand after.

It's definitely not the same as aragonite based sands, it doesn't add any buffering capacity. But I like it a lot more than any white sand there is. Glad things are running smoothly in your other system.

 

[pdiehm]

I am leaning toward staying with barebottom vs adding sand though the Hawaiian Black looks awesome.

I had reef flakes and by not knowing what to do or how to care for it, all hell broke loose in my tank, so I finally said F this and started over.