yellowlogi
Member
Can someone please tell me what all the pros and cons are to having a deep sand bed.
Thanks
Thanks
Pros and Cons of Deep Sand Bed
- Thread starter yellowlogi
- Start date
pyro
Active Member
oh jeez, I sense a debate. You've done it. You've just started WWIII. Good job.
...jk, do a search on it, you'll find tons of info. Personally a fan of just a 1" deco sand bed and a sump with some macro's and tons of LR in the display. Seems to be a good midline between the two extremes of DSBs and barebottom (BB) tanks.
...jk, do a search on it, you'll find tons of info. Personally a fan of just a 1" deco sand bed and a sump with some macro's and tons of LR in the display. Seems to be a good midline between the two extremes of DSBs and barebottom (BB) tanks.
maxalmon
Active Member
I like the 2" depth, seems to be just enough to keep my jawfish happy with decontructing my SB, I swear he has a party once a weeks and shifts everything from one corner to the other. My sand gets mixed around a lot so i'm not to worried about any toxic long term gas buildup if something gets stirred up.
celacanthr
Active Member
Tank size, and dimensions?
laddy
Active Member
Can't we just talk about a less controversial subject, like religion or politics
You'll want to do exactly what most suggested, use the search feature and draw your own conclusions........heck how many people have actually run both kinds of systems and can give pros/cons on both sides of the coin. I can't, I'm a DSBer hoping to have enough space and money to run a bare bottom tank one day.
You'll want to do exactly what most suggested, use the search feature and draw your own conclusions........heck how many people have actually run both kinds of systems and can give pros/cons on both sides of the coin. I can't, I'm a DSBer hoping to have enough space and money to run a bare bottom tank one day.
crzyfshygy
Member
I run a 5in sand bed and really like it. My nitrates stay around 10ppm. Alot of room in a DSB for denitrating critters cool bugs.
toughguy80
Member
I have an engineering goby in a 5+" sand bed. The key with the LR is to make sure your base rocks are in contact with the glass bottom. Not really that much effort is required.
reef diver
Active Member
HAs anyone ever tried a varying depth? I thot that jawfish needed at least 5"or does it matter if you have a rock to make a roof for them. And does anyone think that witha cove like aquascaping i could pull off varying depth?
Srry abot stealin the thread.
Srry abot stealin the thread.
celacanthr
Active Member
What do you mean by "varying depth". If you mean about having different depths of sand in different parts of the tank, then that is fine...I do it in my tank.
As for the jawfish part. In the wild their burrows are never under 4" so I would neer keep one in less than 4" of sand bed.
As for the jawfish part. In the wild their burrows are never under 4" so I would neer keep one in less than 4" of sand bed.
gtiguy
Member
Deep sand bed = nightmare down the road....
My personal experience if anyone remembers the green water incident i had followed after the deep sand bed matter....I had about a 3" sand bed and it started to get weird colored deep down and you could see it through the glass at the bottom (like greyish, black) didnt think anything of it until one day my inverts started dying off for no reason, followed by all my corals, well to make a long story short (and thank god my fish made it through) i freaked and took apart the tank to find nothing wrong...well my last resort to clean out the sand and replenish with fresh new sand, wow is all i can say, the smell from the sand and the way it looked when i got down deep into it,
....Pure disgust is all i can say....will never do a bed deeper than 1.5" ever again!!!
It crashed my entire tank and from what i understand it was hydrogen sulfite/sulfide buildup...and you can test it by smelling the sand, if it smells like rotten eggs you got yourself a problem!!
...and it will eventually create a major problem....Well after that it took about 2 months of trial and error and oh yes green water followed which is rare to us in the marine world, to finally go away.....i can happily say now everything is doing great!! but dam that deep sand bed...Live and you learn i guess....
My personal experience if anyone remembers the green water incident i had followed after the deep sand bed matter....I had about a 3" sand bed and it started to get weird colored deep down and you could see it through the glass at the bottom (like greyish, black) didnt think anything of it until one day my inverts started dying off for no reason, followed by all my corals, well to make a long story short (and thank god my fish made it through) i freaked and took apart the tank to find nothing wrong...well my last resort to clean out the sand and replenish with fresh new sand, wow is all i can say, the smell from the sand and the way it looked when i got down deep into it,
It crashed my entire tank and from what i understand it was hydrogen sulfite/sulfide buildup...and you can test it by smelling the sand, if it smells like rotten eggs you got yourself a problem!!
shiby1510
Member
Isn't it said that you either need to go 1-2inches for a ssb or 6inches for a dsb... nothing in between.. could this have been part of the problem?? I don't know.. but I agree with you... I will be moving my tank sometime in the next few months and I will be removing my dsb with about a 1.5inch sb as well... I also have it in a 30g soo 6inches is just too much room being taken up... Also I've heard that the sand can eventually get soo impacted that it becomes like cement. :notsure: