Sand in the frag tank?

kappaknight · Mar 5, 2007

I've seen a few of your frag tank pics and no one seems to have sand at the bottom. Why/why not? I'm about to start my first frag tank and I'm not sure if I should add some sand in the base.

organism · Mar 5, 2007

I've had a few frag tanks with dsb at the bottom, but much prefer having the tanks with nothing so that I can push the most flow possible through them, since most corals tend to grow much nicer under higher flow

kappaknight · Mar 5, 2007

So if it's possible to have great flow and light, then sand wouldn't really be an issue? I guess my question, would there be benefits of having sand? Not sure if it may help with pod population or anything like that...

revhtree · Mar 5, 2007

I would go sandless. I hated the sand in my prop. Frags would get covered sometimes and sand blew around.

d.grcich · Mar 6, 2007

kappaknight said:
Not sure if it may help with pod population or anything like that...

I try to keep pods out of my frag tank. My pods atack my fresh cut frags. Maybe i just got a evil strain of them.

MarvinsReef · Mar 6, 2007

my 12g JBJ nano turned frag tank is BB.. it's nice to have a little more flow to move the detrius..

good luck on whatever you decide to do..

kappaknight · Mar 6, 2007

Cool, no sand it is... =)

twon8 · Mar 6, 2007

i dont' have sand in my frag tank and i have pods all over the place, they cover the glass. not enough predators.

fishes2889 · Mar 6, 2007

twon8 said:
i dont' have sand in my frag tank and i have pods all over the place, they cover the glass. not enough predators.

Do you have fish in the tank?

twon8 · Mar 6, 2007

ive got a sailfin tang and a psychadelic mandarin. i had a copperbanded in there but it recently died,

twon8 · Mar 7, 2007

see, they are everywhere:

fishes2889 · Mar 7, 2007

geez...thats alot of copepods....

jessiesgrrl · Mar 7, 2007

I keep a sand bed in mine, but only for two reasons: 1)It is used more as a species specific tank than a true prop tank, and 2) I like to have macro growing for stability in such a small system, and I need to be anle to root it. Plus, I use Kalk and I know that Kalk will drop phos on the floor o fthe tank- easier to have the macro and sand there to grab it and export it, imo.

JMHO
Laurie

kappaknight · Mar 7, 2007

I guess I don't technically need sand... I was thinking about adding some rocks below the egg crate as more filtration and stuff, but I honestly have not decided if that's the route to take either. Even though I already have a fuge and tons of rocks, I could always use more filtration...

drowzee · Mar 7, 2007

i just set up a new frag tank and i have sand and live rock on mine. it is in a small flat bucket for easy access. also have a leopard wrasse and she use it to bury.

kappaknight · Mar 11, 2007

That's kinda cool.

Here's another question for the bottoms... It may not matter as much for zoas but more so for SPS's. Has anyone used starboard or a mirror on the bottom to help reflect more light onto the frags?

MATIBY · Apr 19, 2007

coralnutz said:
I like to have no sand in my frag tanks as well. But also make sure you have enough live rock/sand in your sump to ensure you have enough filtration. I think that was the problem in my last frag tank, not enough filtration and I was always dealing with algae even though I skimmed like crazy.

Would a HOB refugium help with the filtration?
I'm planning on setting up a bb 20 long frag tank with LR and a HOB filter.