I had quite a bit of crushed coral but that is one of my pistols favotrite things to collect so it is now sitting under a large rock and whats left is fine sand.
Sand: Good or Bad?
- Thread starter kmeans
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I had quite a bit of crushed coral but that is one of my pistols favotrite things to collect so it is now sitting under a large rock and whats left is fine sand.
FreakinReefin
Insert idiot comment
LOL well I am really wondering if my plenum is truly going to do any good at all because I have two pistols in my tank and both are digging under the plenum to live. If anything...they are safe I guess.
Ah ok that make sense, I will put that on my to do list!
roscoe
Well-known member
No more sand anywhere in my system after they are all out!!! Not even the sump or fuge!!
FreakinReefin
Insert idiot comment
It's super easy too. I just used some egg crate and regular plastic(I think it's vinyl) screen, which cost maybe $5 from home depot, some zip ties and a little silicone(although not necessary). Took about an hour to make the way I wanted it and all while I was drinking beer and watching TV. Not a big task at all.
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FreakinReefin
Insert idiot comment
Noooooooo, your skimmer would eat all that for lunch. You can add a hang on back(HOB) refugium or even grab a 10g tank and separate the refugium from the sump. I have a 100g and a 55g refugium hooked into the same sump. Basically using one sump for two tanks, however the 55g is growing massive macro algae and has a deep deep sand bed.
Thats what i figured. I have a 10 gal so i guess I can add that to my to do list also.
daytonaconnecti
Well-known member
as for me on the bb issue , i have been bb for years now and have not yet won the battle with green algae, i have tried everything, sump, new skimmer, macro,lighting,water flow, doseing,no luck, live stock never better...i asked the lfs what the difference was from my tank and theirs, they simply said sand...plain and simple.....so before i sell the setup iam giving one more try with sand...
lvsuckerfish
g funk
I will never do sand in my big display that is my choice i rater have the flow then the sand. I have even heard that a rdsb will not really benifit all that much in our enclosed systems what truth to that there is I do not know I just like the flow.
Yep, that's where I stand now also. And, no sand...BB.
runtowin777
Active member
one of the biggest perks of having sand is that when your rock structures fall if they do they have padding so they wont crack or break your class. ive heard horror stories of bare bottoms having the bottom bust out due to this
Sand to bare and back again
I went through this exact problem myself. I started my tank with sand because I purchased it 2nd hand and it came with sand. It was an acrylic tank and unfortunately it also came with a magnetic cleaning pad. I scratched up my tank so often that I decided to switch to BB and remove the sand, but I was unable to get all the sand out without dismantling the entire tank (which I didn’t want to do). I also found I didn’t really like the look of the BB and a big part of having the tank in my living room was to look at. I replaced the sand I had removed slowly and now I’m back to where I started. I think if I was really focused on growing the corals I would probably go BB. Something I’ve heard and tired is using critters to agitate the sand. I have a diamond goby and some snails that like to burry in the sand. I don’t know how much it helps, but I figure it doesn’t hurt.
A few pieces of advice about cleaning a tank with sand:
1. Don’t use a magnetic pad if your tank is acrylic. Probably not the best idea if you have glass.
2. Use a scraper to clean off any small critters (e.g. pinhead sized snails) crawling on the tank, then use an acrylic safe brush to clean all the glass an inch above the sand. I prefer the white brush because you can more easily see any algae still on the glass.
3. Use the scraper to clean the glass around the level of the sand. You can scrape back the sand right against the glass to make it easier to clean.
I went through this exact problem myself. I started my tank with sand because I purchased it 2nd hand and it came with sand. It was an acrylic tank and unfortunately it also came with a magnetic cleaning pad. I scratched up my tank so often that I decided to switch to BB and remove the sand, but I was unable to get all the sand out without dismantling the entire tank (which I didn’t want to do). I also found I didn’t really like the look of the BB and a big part of having the tank in my living room was to look at. I replaced the sand I had removed slowly and now I’m back to where I started. I think if I was really focused on growing the corals I would probably go BB. Something I’ve heard and tired is using critters to agitate the sand. I have a diamond goby and some snails that like to burry in the sand. I don’t know how much it helps, but I figure it doesn’t hurt.
A few pieces of advice about cleaning a tank with sand:
1. Don’t use a magnetic pad if your tank is acrylic. Probably not the best idea if you have glass.
2. Use a scraper to clean off any small critters (e.g. pinhead sized snails) crawling on the tank, then use an acrylic safe brush to clean all the glass an inch above the sand. I prefer the white brush because you can more easily see any algae still on the glass.
3. Use the scraper to clean the glass around the level of the sand. You can scrape back the sand right against the glass to make it easier to clean.
