Sand or not to sand??

[Desi]

So.....6x2x2 with sump. Bottom is covered with coraline algae which is nice....BUT....I'm really tempted t sand it to make it brighter. Live sand? Normal sand? It's been running for years but just cant decide whether to do it again or not.

 

[Greybeard]

Major changes like adding or removing a sand bed can have dire consequences for a mature reef. It's your reef, your tank, your hobby... do what makes you happy, but realize that adding sand is very likely to upset the stability of your reef for a significant period of time. Takes a while for everything to adjust.

You've got a stable system, I wouldn't worry about 'live' sand... plain dry sand, well rinsed, would be my choice... if I were going to choose to add sand to my bare bottom (which I'm not going to do!)

Best of luck!

 

[Hendrix]

Ive gone bare Botton and love it!!

I do miss nice clean sand.

I agree with Greybeard, any changes should be very slowly introduced

 

[LOVEROCK]

how fast does it take for corraline algae to cover barebottom completely?

 

[Greybeard]

how fast does it take for corraline algae to cover barebottom completely?

My tank (reboot) was filled in October... so... 8 months in, with an HDPE plastic sheet over the glass, I'm at 65% coraline algae coverage at this point.

 

[Dave Cureton]

What type of corals do you keep and how much flow is in the tank? I would love sand in my tank but figure it would look like a snow globe due to the flow.

 

[TriggerFinger]

If it were my tank: Dry sand, rinsed VERY well. Added in small amounts over a period of time . You can use a large pvc tube and funnel to get it in between corals and such. Don’t just dump it in. I have two tanks, one bb and one with sand. I like them both for different reasons and wouldn’t add sand to the bare bottom bc it’s been running for so long.

 

[SMSREEF]

My nano was bare bottom and I wanted sand on the 60 cube I set up. I just like the look of having sand better.

The grain I got was too fine and it blew all over the place. I switched it out for caribsea dry aragonite special grade (Based on suggestions from other R2R members) and it is heavy enough that it doesn’t blow all over, and my wrasse still goes in it at night. It’s not as bright white as the first sand I got, but it still brightens the tank.

If I had a mature tank, I would have added a little bit each week.

Also, make sure to rinse it really well first, it’s really dusty.

good luck with whatever you decide!

 

[shadesatsetbreak]

I don't see the point of live sand unless you're trying to seed dry rock. I've never used it, and never will use, as long as I'm using live rock, which will be always.
With that said, I'm a fan of sand. I use large grain sand that's super easy to clean; I don't technically practice a deep sand bed, although it is six inches deep in one of my tanks. I siphon it weekly though and I think it looks great.

Adding sand at this stage won't hurt your tank. It's removing it that can cause major issues. But that's if you use it as an anaerobic layer. Cleaned frequently, you can add/remove sand at will without any major detriment.

 

[LOVEROCK]

My tank (reboot) was filled in October... so... 8 months in, with an HDPE plastic sheet over the glass, I'm at 65% coraline algae coverage at this point.

just set up my bare bottom recently, the thing is i forgot to put a plywood so refugium light peices to DT at night lol, i might use garbage bags ( black to cover it

 

[Greybeard]

just set up my bare bottom recently, the thing is i forgot to put a plywood so refugium light peices to DT at night lol, i might use garbage bags ( black to cover it

Not a problem, in my case, but I can see how it'd get past you.

I'd just spray the bottom of the display tank glass with black spray paint.

 

[Teemingtank]

Do you plan on pulling everything out first? I might get some flack for this, but I’ve added sand to a previous tank before. I didn’t rinse the sand, but I rinsed the bag thoroughly, put it in the tank still bagged, and razor bladed the bag underwater and slowly let it dump out. Didn’t really cloud my water, but the key is slowly letting it fall out and carefully lifting the plastic bag out

I didn’t test params, so I can’t vouch for what it did to my numbers. I used this method on my current tank recently to make a “wrasse bed” but my tank isn’t nearly as mature as yours

 

[Desi]

Thanks for the replies. It's not the process of adding the sand as I have done this many many times in other tanks over the yrs. I'm just thinking of long term effects with build up underneath etc. Aldo if I do the actual depth of bed to consider