Sand or no sand - Help me choose!!

[corey.nolta]

As the title states, help me chose which way to go! I'm 50/50 on what to do.

Starting my 250 build and I don't know what I want to do as far as substrate goes. The tank will be a mixed reef tank, mainly lps and softies with a pretty open space feel (vs a massive rock wall / pile).

Current stocking will be: Yellow Tang, Purple Tang, Pair of Ocellaris, Stripped Damsel.
Future Stocking will be: Above, Emperor Angel (Possibly. I know it's risky with corals), Naso Tang, and some other fish which I'm not sure on yet. Always open to suggestions!

I LOVE the idea of a bare bottom tank being much easier to maintain and clean. I'll admit, I can be pretty lazy at times. Most times actually. So the ease really appeals to me. But the thought of not having any sand worries me on if I'll hate it or not.

I love the look of a natural sand bed. The bright white sand bed just adds a little something extra. However, I can never keep a perfectly white sand bed. EVER.

Help me choose to go sand or no sand!

 

[Crabs McJones]

As the title states, help me chose which way to go! I'm 50/50 on what to do.

Starting my 250 build and I don't know what I want to do as far as substrate goes. The tank will be a mixed reef tank, mainly lps and softies with a pretty open space feel (vs a massive rock wall / pile).

Current stocking will be: Yellow Tang, Purple Tang, Pair of Ocellaris, Stripped Damsel.
Future Stocking will be: Above, Emperor Angel (Possibly. I know it's risky with corals), Naso Tang, and some other fish which I'm not sure on yet. Always open to suggestions!

I LOVE the idea of a bare bottom tank being much easier to maintain and clean. I'll admit, I can be pretty lazy at times. Most times actually. So the ease really appeals to me. But the thought of not having any sand worries me on if I'll hate it or not.

I love the look of a natural sand bed. The bright white sand bed just adds a little something extra. However, I can never keep a perfectly white sand bed. EVER.

Help me choose to go sand or no sand!

I unintentionally did both. The sand is around my rocks and in the back, and the front is bare. Happened that way because my mp10s are turned up full blast. But if I had a choice. I'd do sand bottom. Acts as stability for your rockwork, and like stated above it looks more natural

 

[pharazon]

I’m always gonna vote sand. I know it’s a pain to keep clean, but to me it just completes the natural look.

Get some good sand sifters - I think Diamond gobys are supposed to be amongst the best. Fighting conchs are also great.

 

[pugcrush]

I love the look of sand since its 'natural', but i love bare bare bottom even more. It looks great when you put down all your encrusting corals.

 

[Justfebreezeit]

The good thing about this is you can start one way and if you decide to change it, it wont be to hard to do so.

 

[corey.nolta]

Part 2 of the question. Which will be easier and not affect the tank as much.......Adding sand later (if I go bare bottom and hate it) or removing sand later (I start with sand and decide I want bare bottom)?

Part 2.5 of the question. If I go bare bottom, do I need to do anything different with the rock work as far as supporting it? Can the rock just stack right on the glass?

 

[NinnJinn]

I am no expert. But in my opinion either one would be somewhat of a hassle and have their disadvantages.

Sand first. If you take it out you're going to be stirring up settlements and waste and everything else along with removing part of your bacteria. Not to mention it's going to be messy messy messy with water and everything else.

Bare bottom first. The fish are going to freak out due to substrate falling into the tank. Potential of harming or killing fish and if you have corals burying the corals. Also you would have to stick your hand and arm in the tank full of water to smooth out the sand. the next part I am not a 100% sure. But you might throw tank parameters off possibly.


In either case you will probably have to deal with a very cloudy tank for a few days while everything settles.

Like I said I am no expert. But basically just me thinking out loud.

 

[Guttersnipe]

I used to love the look of sand too. But I tried bare bottom once and can never go back to sand.

 

[Scorpius]

Bare bottom. My next tank will be bare bottom with a Tupperware container of sand in the corner for my wrasses to sleep in. Sand is such a pain to keep clean and if you don't it gets even worse.

 

[saltyfilmfolks]

Eventually,
You have to clean a bare bottom.
You don’t have to clean sand.
(It’s like a good carpet, hides the pizza stains )

 

[Guttersnipe]

Eventually,
You have to clean a bare bottom.
You don’t have to clean sand.
(It’s like a good carpet, hides the pizza stains )

With no sand I have lots of flow and nothing stays on the bottom.

 

[Scorpius]

Eventually,
You have to clean a bare bottom.
You don’t have to clean sand.
(It’s like a good carpet, hides the pizza stains )

Sooner or later the pizza stains turn into an extra large pizza with all the toppings whether you like it or not. lol

 

[saltyfilmfolks]

Sooner or later the pizza stains turn into an extra large pizza with all the toppings whether you like it or not. lol

Pretty much my point.
Lol.

 

[saltyfilmfolks]

With no sand I have lots of flow and nothing stays on the bottom.

Cool!
Same here with sand.
IMO. Both work. Diffent care and consideration is all.

 

[falconut]

I love the look of sand, so I'm always gonna vote for sand. I setup my latest tank with the seaflor special grade aragonite and love it, it allows decent flow without blow around too much. This time I just did around 1/2" - 1" thick and vacuum it during water changes. Other than the initial bloom, it's stays clean. But, I'm bias because the bare bottom doesn't look natural to me. Good luck deciding, all the options are what make this hobby fun.

 

[Starblenny]

Here's my opinion about BB:

• Super easy maintenance (the biggest selling point imo). It's easy to suck up detritus or use a turkey baster to blow them off under the rocks and siphon them out. Can't do that with a sandbed or else risk a mini-cycle.
• You can crank up the flow without worrying about a sandstorm/burying other corals with the sand.
• Coraline covered bottom (not everyone thinks it's a pro though, I just think it's pretty neat).

I've also heard from other reefers that certain corals, like plate corals, do better in BB because they're not getting scratched/pierced by the sand as they expand... though I dunno if that's true or not


The one thing I miss about sand is that I could keep fighting conch, nassarius, and certain wrasses. Additionally, when some corals get loose (like mushrooms or zoas), they'll settle onto the sand and I can glue them back down once they're attach to the sand. Can't do that in a BB tank.

 

[Greaps]

My suggestion is to go without sand. For me the next best thing would be extremely shallow, less than a quarter inch, perhaps an 1/8th of an inch deep and very coarse, like crushed coral, I think it would be easiest to vacuum and would not interfere with your water flow desires.

I will probably go the second route with a very thin layer of crushed coral next time, I have done bare bottoms a couple of times, I love them but it is a bit of work to keep the bottom glass clean especially where is comes against the bottom of the rock work. I always felt the need to scrub the bottom glass to remove film algae and get it looking like brand new again. Also within hours of a deep cleaning, you will find little detritus tornado's forming and or lower flow small piles. My piles were usually in the back corners. It still bothered me mildly.

I think I will go crushed coral so that fine film doesn't show as easily, and the detritus is more out of site A monthly sand bed vacuum will take care of it, not a water change, just running the water back into mechanical filtration for removal.

The idea of a thin layer of crushed coral, I don't believe is popular for aesthetics verse finer sands, and crushed coral more than a quarter inch deep IMO is trouble, and will significantly trap the mess.

 

[happyhourhero]

Having had both, I prefer B.B. It turns into the equivalent of a giant flat rock after a few months and you can grow coral right on it.

The ability to crank flow is nice too. I do miss the action of the sand sifting gobies and the microfauna that sets up in the sand.

 

[hart24601]

A vote for without sand here. Especially if keeping lots of acros.

I see it again and again locally, people start with sand, they start having more and more stony corals and things go great. They cover the sand bed with chalices and other LPS. Time goes on, eventually they notice acros browning out and eventually RTN/STN. This has happened in our local group 3 times this year. I say the same thing, siphon a 5g bucket of the sandbed and lets see what it look like.

Every time in the past year, and many other times before that they send a picture of water so nasty dark and (they say) just reeking. And it's normally just from a small section of the sand bed. They clean it up and the system is good to go.

Not that you can't have sand, but it makes life easier IMO without it. Put a powerhead directly on the bottom of the tank and grow acros right on the bottom! You can put zoa rocks and other coral on the bottom to break up the lines and I think it looks better than sand eventually. If you want sand that's 100% cool, many people enjoy the life in sand, just keep it clean. Remember everything is a trade-off, there is no right or wrong and every choice has some pros and cons. The only time people run into trouble is when they embrace only the positive aspects and ignore everything else!

 

[esquare]

I went with kind of a hybrid approach. I put down a layer of silicon covering the entire bottom of the tank and then poured sand on it while it was still wet. I pushed the sand in a little then let the silicon dry and poured off the excess sand. It has stood up well for 8 months.