Sand or no sand?

[Mark Bradley]

As I’m starting from scratch I’m wondering if I’m best to go for no sand. I was looking forward to having a mix of clean up crew so would need to think about that but outside of this is there any advantages, apart from being more natural, to having a sand bed or does it just give detritus etc somewhere to go and cause issues? Does sand or no sand impact on frequency of water changes? Thinking of the waste build up again here.

 

[Mr.Asbury]

I have sand because I knew I wanted a goby & some wrasse - which require sand. My goby is currently my favorite fish in my tank, and he's always digging around in the sand. May want to look at your stocking wishes, and go from there to decide!

 

[Jvesche20]

I have a tank with sand and one without sand. I like the one with sand way more. The one without sand is my frag tank so I don't see a point in adding sand. The bottom of the tank without sand has algae growing all over it so it's not the best looking. But I also don't scrape it off the bottom of the glass. There's not a lot but just a small layer. I prefer sand over bare bottom.

 

[Etmanning]

I have always run sand and plan on always running sand. Without it the tank doesn't look right to me and I love my wrasses who need to sleep in it.

I would only run bare bottom if I were doing a high end SPS tank and needed perfect parameters.

 

[Cory]

Ill tell you what ive noticed.
Bare bottom doesnt guarantee not having nitrate or phosphate. I still got them and i have a substrate free tank. Food put in the tank determines how much po4 and no3 youll have - not detritus. Fish pee po4 too so the magic bullet isnt removing all detritus as one was led to believe.

However, one thing bare bottom does is reduce detritus and ive noticed it can make some fish sick. I mean poop and rotting food is in the tank. That cant be good. You wouldnt poop in the corner of your house and live in it. Ever opened a fridge onky to smell something rotting? I imagine the same goes with a tank youd want it out.

The way i do it now is bare bottom but i need supplement phosphate sometimes. My no3 is maxed out from the supermarket shrimp ive been feeding my panther grouper daily.

I have added some silica sand to my sump in hopes of providing denitrfication and silica dosing for sponges. I may take it out if it doesnt reduce no3. I mean thats the point right?

If all else fails water changes and or vinegar dosing.

 

[Mark Bradley]

I’ve run tropical with and without sand. Without was certainly quicker to clear up detritus - uneaten food and poop was easier to see. However, ‘with’ was always easier on the eye imo.

I suppose it comes down to personal preference - albeit the next question is ‘how deep do you make the sand?’ As that also seems to spark differing opinions.

I’m leaning towards ‘with sand’, sand sifting clean up crew and regular blasts with a baster!