Sand bed question

[doomus]

I have recently moved and am getting ready to set up my tank again. I really like the look of sand substrate and want to go that way instead of bare bottom. I have heard all of the benifits and drawbacks to a deep sand bed and don't realy like the idea of a possible crash down the road. Can I go with a shallow sand bed of about 1" and avoid some of the potential pitfalls of a deep sand bed? And if so what size and type of sand do you reccomend?

Here is the planned system so far. 100gal display, 30 gal sump, 10 gal ref with live rock and some sort of macro, 1200gph through the sump, 1000gph closed loop, (2) 250w MH and (4) 65w attinic PC, lots of live rock.

dennis

 

[Krish]

I use to run a very shallow sand bed in my tank. I was in the same boat as you, like the look, but didn't want a problem arising from a sand bed clogging etc. Basically, all you will have to do to prevent any problems down the road is to vacuum it weekly when you do a water change. Suck up all the crap that gets trapped in it and you should be good to go. The only reason I went bb was because I was tired of my pumps pushing the sand all over the place so I figured why fight it, so I removed it and put a white bottom down. I guess with a sand bed as shallow as you want it, you can pretty much go for any size grain you want once you plan to keep it clean. That's my 2 cents...HTH

 

[richard chappel]

if you're going to use a sandbed,rule of thumb is 1" or none, or 3 "or more, anything in between will not let the denutrification process complete itself i currently have a system using deep sandbeds which helps stabilize the alkalinity level which of couse helps maintain ph level etc.... try to add several species of gobies such as twin spots, crabs like red tips and or starfish(brittles if possible) to keep the top layer of sand stirred up so anerobic process of the sandbed doesn't become clogged by a thick layer on the upper surface. Good luck! ric

 

[Krish]

Welcome to RF Richard!