Sand

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Krish

Krish

RF STAFF
Joined
Oct 22, 2004
Messages
25,290
Location
Nassau, Bahamas
Sand is like a car or even some children...

You can treat them well and do all you can to give them the best care, but eventually in the end, all they do is cause you problems.

Thank you and good night!!! :peace:


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Say your prayers little one
Don't forget my son
To include everyone
I tuck you in
Warm within
Keep you free from sin
'Til the sandman he comes

Sleep with one eye open
Gripping your pillow tight

Exit light
Enter night
Take my hand
We're off to never never-land
 
Lol! You're a crazy man!!

Sand is pretty, but man! I can't believe I use to use it! Just playing devil's advocate here, but honestly I could never run a tank with sand ever again. Once I got rid of it, I never went back. :)


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Krish said:
Lol! You're a crazy man!!

Sand is pretty, but man! I can't believe I use to use it! Just playing devil's advocate here, but honestly I could never run a tank with sand ever again. Once I got rid of it, I never went back. :)


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Click to expand...
as a substrate or totally? what about remote dsb's? and isn't sand just ground up live rock?
 
Sasquatch said:
Say your prayers little one
Don't forget my son
To include everyone
I tuck you in
Warm within
Keep you free from sin
'Til the sandman he comes

Sleep with one eye open
Gripping your pillow tight

Exit light
Enter night
Take my hand
We're off to never never-land
Click to expand...


Didnt know you had THAT in you.
 
Krish said:
Lol! You're a crazy man!!

Sand is pretty, but man! I can't believe I use to use it! Just playing devil's advocate here, but honestly I could never run a tank with sand ever again. Once I got rid of it, I never went back. :)


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Click to expand...


Sand seems like A LOT of work for a nice looking bottom.
I too will never go back
 
IMO, Cleaning it is a PITA,

If you dont clean it you will dirty your spendy water. It looks nice. It is a benefit if you have the correct depth and CLEAN it. With rocks sitting on top of it you will not be able to get under the rocks to CLEAN it.
 
SAND IS EVIL!!! lol, the only thing thats wrong about a sand substrate is the owners misconceptions of its limitations, or as Clint would put it... a man's got to know his limitations
 
josh88 said:
Ok now why shouldn't I get sand. Everyone I've talked to except the forum says its beneficial

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Haha! So we are confusing you huh? :lol:. It is beneficial as it does provide an environment for bacteria to grow which aids in biological filtration. In addition, some fish and inverts require it. As a result, many people run sandbeds with success and no issues, but as Peppie mentioned, sometimes it's just a pain in the neck to keep clean. So much waste can get trapped and lost in there so if you aren't on top of keeping it clean, then it can cause some issues sometimes. Then there is flow. Some of us like really high flow tanks where sand would never stay put.

The main thing though when it comes to sand is to understand how you care for it for the type you are running and what it's all about as some people just think they can toss sand in the tank and forget about it which in most cases you really can't. :)


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peppie said:
IMO, Cleaning it is a PITA,

If you dont clean it you will dirty your spendy water. It looks nice. It is a benefit if you have the correct depth and CLEAN it. With rocks sitting on top of it you will not be able to get under the rocks to CLEAN it.
Click to expand...

Nothing a turkey baster cant take care of. :yo:
 
Yes, there are pro's and con's to both sides of this. Having the right sand is a plus to start with. For instance, I just started my 65 with a white sugar sand and cant stand it. Even with a measley 38x turnover the sand lifts right off the bottom of the tank and settles out onto the rocks and corals. Yesterday with my first 12G WC I siphoned half of it out and will replace it with a #5 aragonite in two weeks. In my 210 I had a shallow SB and ran a 100X turnover, the sand never moved. It did however require cleaning with a turkey baster while I ran a filter sock on the overflows.

I can sort of see the appeal of a BB tank in less build up of the fine silt. However I've been part of two very successful large BB tanks with rock racks (suspended rock work) and they both eventually had places in the bottom built up with LR shed and plenty of detritous.

Even a BB tank requires work to keep clean. No matter how you go about keeping a reef tank you still have to do the basics and that pretty much means using the old fashioned siphon tube on the bottom of the tank.

IMO it really boils down to preference.

Krish, you'll never convince me to go BB.
 
trido said:
Yes, there are pro's and con's to both sides of this. Having the right sand is a plus to start with. For instance, I just started my 65 with a white sugar sand and cant stand it. Even with a measley 38x turnover the sand lifts right off the bottom of the tank and settles out onto the rocks and corals. Yesterday with my first 12G WC I siphoned half of it out and will replace it with a #5 aragonite in two weeks. In my 210 I had a shallow SB and ran a 100X turnover, the sand never moved. It did however require cleaning with a turkey baster while I ran a filter sock on the overflows.

I can sort of see the appeal of a BB tank in less build up of the fine silt. However I've been part of two very successful large BB tanks with rock racks (suspended rock work) and they both eventually had places in the bottom built up with LR shed and plenty of detritous.

Even a BB tank requires work to keep clean. No matter how you go about keeping a reef tank you still have to do the basics and that pretty much means using the old fashioned siphon tube on the bottom of the tank.

IMO it really boils down to preference.

Krish, you'll never convince me to go BB.
Click to expand...

One day we will convert you :p. The thing I like about bare bottom tanks is if you have any detritus settling, you can see exactly where it is and will usually pile up in one or two spots. As a result, it's not a case of "hit or miss" vacuuming because you know exactly where the waste is. With a sand bed, it's hidden so you have a bit more work to do vacuuming everywhere to make sure you've covered everything. My 75 gal bb tank had one spot it would settle that only needed siphoning. My 38 gal cube had none. With 9 independent nozzles that could be adjusted individually and about 4,000 gph of flow (8 for closed loop and 1 return) I didn't have any spots where waste/detritus settled. A water change on that tank was just that...Changing water. No vacuuming took place.

With that said, sand is nice, but I rather see it on a beach then to deal with it in a tank. I had my experiences with it and didn't like it too much. Personal preference though. :)


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Bare Bottoms only belong on BABIES (thier Baby, His Baby, Her Baby) For all the benefits of easy maintenance I absolutely cannot pallet the look unless in a QT, might as well put square wheels on a Ferari or Lambo. Ive seen dozens of very high end reeftanks with BB and to me just RUINS all effort put into it asthetically speaking. $10K or more in Designer Corals (still on frag plugs) and fish just don't look right sitting on a piece of Starboard or eggcrate :nono: Only one exception IMHO is the sculpted foam bottoms to mimic a Reefcrest.
Playing :angel:'s advocate here, as I love my sand critters and Leopard Wrasses


Cheers, Todd
 
TJL said:
Bare Bottoms only belong on BABIES (thier Baby, His Baby, Her Baby) For all the benefits of easy maintenance I absolutely cannot pallet the look unless in a QT, might as well put square wheels on a Ferari or Lambo. Ive seen dozens of very high end reeftanks with BB and to me just RUINS all effort put into it asthetically speaking. $10K or more in Designer Corals (still on frag plugs) and fish just don't look right sitting on a piece of Starboard or eggcrate :nono: Only one exception IMHO is the sculpted foam bottoms to mimic a Reefcrest.
Playing :angel:'s advocate here, as I love my sand critters and Leopard Wrasses


Cheers, Todd
Click to expand...

Ha!! White PVC board bottom FTW!! :D

Dirty looking dsb's running up the tanks glass to where you can see every layer of gook isnt pretty if you ask me:p

josh88 said:
What sand would you recommend for a jbj hqi nano 28 gallon

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If you want sand I say Fiji pink is some nice looking stuff. That was my favorite when I used sand (bows head in shame). Feels good on your toes too! :)

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