sandless tank ? no substrate
- Thread starter derrickt
- Start date
y2says
Member
Having a substrate has some benefits and dissadvantages. With a substrate, your aquarium will look more natural. It can also serve as a filter as will help get rid of nitrate (with a DSB). Some animals also use the substrate for their homes like gobies, crabs, wrasses, etc. The dissadvantages is that you will have to clean it whether you go with cc or DSB on way or the other. If cc is used you will have to siphon it once in a while and in a DSB, you'll need to stir it up a little. I personally like the look of a tank with a substrate myself. However it's up to you.
katara
Member
well,I switched from cc to ls because the cc was non-preductive but also much more work(& starfish do not care for cc)The crushed coral also did nothing to help w/my nitrate levels but did keep the toxins trapped within it,While it is more expensive at first it is MUCH more viable to begin with live sand which will also benefit you with a biological breakdown of waste your tank will develop..good luck! 
me-n-my-fish
Member
I know that I will take some hits on this, but I did the switch to DSB from cc. I did not like it, and had a VERY bad cyno outbreak. After doing some reading and head scratching, I figured the DSB was not for me. My very trusted LFS said that he had switched his display to a DBS, and could not keep the water right. He now has no substrate, execpt for the coraline that is growing all over everything. I took my DSB out of my Main tank, and put a 1 grain layer of cc back in. Much easyer to clean. I left a 5" DSB in my refguim. I know that I will lose some filtration, but my skimmer and refguim will take care of that, hopfully. So far so good with this set up. Be up with the 1 grain cc for about 3 months and everybody, including me, is happy. I guess it is just up to you on what you want.
broomer5
Active Member
DerrickT
You can successfully run any saltwater tank without any substrate should you desire.
As long as you provide sufficient biological filtration for the fish you have - it can be done, and has been done by many folks for years.
You will not have the denitrification benefits of a living DSB.
You will not have the diversity of life in a bare bottom tank as compared to a tank with a living DSB.
You will not have the huge surface area for bacteria to grow in a sandless bottomed tank as you would with a living DSB.
You will not gain many of the benefits of having a living DSB - one of which is more free time not consumed by unnecessary tank care and cleaning/maintenance.
With a bare bottom ( or minimum substrate ) tank - depending on your fish load - you will need to deal with nitrate build up either with a DSB refugium or algae planted refugium ...
OR
Do more frequent water changes to reduce nitrates.
You will need to occasionally siphon off the visible debris and detritus that will fall to the bottom of a tank with no substrate ( or little substrate. )
There is little time spent cleaning a DSB - almost none - aside from reaching in occasionally to remove something by hand if you care to.
Personally - The additional time spent doing more nitrate reducing water changes and cleaning the bottom of a bare bottom tank is not what I consider "user friendly" tank care maintenance.
With a DSB and a good clean-up crew, and all the critters that live down in the sandbed - you can literally go weeks/months without ever having to stick your hand in to reach the bottom of the tank.
DSB's are by far much easier to keep, provide many benefits to the tankwater chemestry, fish, inverts and all living creatures much more, and is just a less demanding tank to care for in my opinion.
But ... as always ... it's your choice to make
You can successfully run any saltwater tank without any substrate should you desire.
As long as you provide sufficient biological filtration for the fish you have - it can be done, and has been done by many folks for years.
You will not have the denitrification benefits of a living DSB.
You will not have the diversity of life in a bare bottom tank as compared to a tank with a living DSB.
You will not have the huge surface area for bacteria to grow in a sandless bottomed tank as you would with a living DSB.
You will not gain many of the benefits of having a living DSB - one of which is more free time not consumed by unnecessary tank care and cleaning/maintenance.
With a bare bottom ( or minimum substrate ) tank - depending on your fish load - you will need to deal with nitrate build up either with a DSB refugium or algae planted refugium ...
OR
Do more frequent water changes to reduce nitrates.
You will need to occasionally siphon off the visible debris and detritus that will fall to the bottom of a tank with no substrate ( or little substrate. )
There is little time spent cleaning a DSB - almost none - aside from reaching in occasionally to remove something by hand if you care to.
Personally - The additional time spent doing more nitrate reducing water changes and cleaning the bottom of a bare bottom tank is not what I consider "user friendly" tank care maintenance.
With a DSB and a good clean-up crew, and all the critters that live down in the sandbed - you can literally go weeks/months without ever having to stick your hand in to reach the bottom of the tank.
DSB's are by far much easier to keep, provide many benefits to the tankwater chemestry, fish, inverts and all living creatures much more, and is just a less demanding tank to care for in my opinion.
But ... as always ... it's your choice to make
daisy
Member
Okay, so I read about why DSB is so great, but why should I switch from CC to DSB? And once I have a 55 gal full of CC, how do I change over to DSB? And is it possible that the reason I can not get my nitrates down to nil even though every other param is perfect is because of the DSB? I filter and age my water before I add it, and its nitrate is zero...