To sand or not to sand that is the question

[stylaster]

Hey Guys

In my 120 I have one corner with sand in it, on the left side as in this pic

 

Should I go for sand the rest of the way across or go bare bottom?

[grassi]

I voted for bare bottom ;-)

[Miniwhinny]

I voted no sand. I never put sand in my tanks

[Lowman]

I am voting no, but I think you need a sand bed somewhere in your system.

[R-3]

I said yes

 

Just not a big fan of barebottoms. Gotta have some sand in there. Just buy some nice Carib Sea and you will be happy!

[pledosophy]

Unless you want to keep a wrasse, then no. I tried making a "sandpile" for my wrasse, but in a couple months the sand was everywhere, not much but everywhere.

 

Sand will grealy limit your options for current as well IME.

[snowpunk]

yep, the ocean has sand, so I add it since that is the look I am going for . You know the reef and all. Think about the fish you can get that will use the sand. Wrasse, goby, how about inverts too.(naughty)

[Saltfinsax]

Maybe stay half and half. That is if you can find a nice decrative divider to somewhat keep the sand on one side.

[saltyrogue]

Snowpunk said what I was thinking, Inverts, Mandarins, Gobies, Grammas, Sand Stars I keep a layer all the way across the tank with shells on one side and thicker level of sand on the other. If you have sand that moves then your current is to strong, use a Kolaria that whips the water instead of a pump that pushes it.

[saltyrogue]

Edit: Koralia Pumps.

[Chief]

I vote remote sandbed.

 

Jay

[CA2OR]

I am thinking that my next tank will have a DSB and I will make my display appear to have sand but it actually wont. Keyword here is "thinking" I do like sand and if I were you with sand already in part of it and the ability to house previously listed inverts and fish, I would add the sand to the remiander of the tank....it would look really nice...IMO

[Barelycuda]

There are reasons for both directions of sand/no sand. I personally like a sand bed in my tank. I think it looks more natural and the wife likes it too

 

Dave

[Byrd]

I am thinking that my next tank will have a DSB and I will make my display appear to have sand but it actually wont. Keyword here is "thinking" I do like sand and if I were you with sand already in part of it and the ability to house previously listed inverts and fish' date=' I would add the sand to the remiander of the tank....it would look really nice...IMO[/quote']

 

Do your homework on DSB-lots to read and points pro and con.

 

I voted sand, but I would not go more than 1 inch maybe slghtly less-I did this in a 20 gallon, and went 2-3 inches in my display. I wish I would have gone the 1/2 to 1 inch route-for no specific reason other than looks and maybe money-mainly looks

[MadReefer]

I have about 3" of very fine sand in my display. I still have pretty good flow but it does limit how high I can take the flow. That is the only negative that I consider and I will always have a DSB in my tanks. Remote DSBs work well also.

[stylaster]

wow thanks guys for all the ideas! I think im going to do a 1/2" to 1" sand bed in the front half of the main display. Then i am going to do a 6" deep one in my first sump partition to act as a refugium also. Does that sound good?

[Nyles]

I have done both, and had good and bad experiences with both, I would say if you can use sugar sand and keep it maintained go sanded as I like the look better. On the flip side I like the cleanliness of going bare bottom and running a DSB on the side. If you have an extra deep tank consider Remote sand, if its easy to get to I would put in the sand.

[undrtkr_00]

Personally, I don't like the look of bare bottom tanks, and I have been very happy with my DSB.