Substrate or not? Chime in please

[SRWoodcock]

I have heard two basic schools of thought here.

1. The oceans have sandy bottoms, so it must be a beneficial to the ecosystem.

2. Substrates just collect detrius, bare bottom is easier to maintain.

Help me out here people.

 

[tike]

I did samdbed for a while. Worked great for 2 years them I had terrible nitrate problems. Could never get a hold on it until i went BB. Haven't had a problem since. I know others that have had a sandbed for years with no problems. Sooooooo....6 of one half dozen of another? I guess you just have to try it out and see what happens in you reef situation.

Don't know if that helped or not but....just my 2¢

 

[nata]

Depends on size of system..my 180 has sand my 34 is BB...right now i enjoy cleaning my smaller tank cause detrius is easy removed..on the other hand i love the animals that benefit from
The sand like my mandarin ,wrasse,sandsifter..

 

[Frankie]

I like a shallow substrate for bacteria to populate on. Good surface area and it looks better.

 

[Krish]

All depends on what you like. You will be limited on which critters and fish you can keep if you went bare bottom. Once I went bare bottom I never went back. Love the fact that I can have whatever flow I want in my tank and not have to worry about a sandstorm. Also, I feel it is much easier to keep the tank clean as you can see exactly what is going on on the bottom of your tank rather than with sand where waste/detritus can me masked.

Just a few personal thoughts.

 

[rayjay]

I agree, it's a personal choice and I went bare bottom for all but one of my tanks. The prop tank has a sand bed.

 

[Scooterman]

I'm going with sand next tank, probably a thin bed! I agree, either way you can make it work, yo just have to learn how to deal with it!

 

[rainydave]

I put a sand bed in my 40. I like the look of it. Plus it allows me to have a pistol shrimp that re-arranges it on a semi-daily basis.

 

[mojoreef]

Their are alot of factors to think about when you are talking about this and it can be a long arguement but it boils down to a couple things.
>In terms of looks its the users call.

>In terms of use, if you are going for a high water flow energenic system, say for SPS, hen the sand can tend to blow around or restrict that. If you are going for a less flow system, a little more nutrient rich then sand supports that well.

In terms of filtration, The concept of a sand system is to bind up or lock up various nutrients with in the sand bed, Nutrients are bound by Bacteria and simular and then leached to where algae pick it up and then can be harvested. An alturnative way to deal with this is to stir the sand beds upper layer (about 1 inch) and manually syphon the excess detritus out.
>In BB systems you keep most detritus in the water colum and then export in via filters and so on. SMall pockets of detritus are also removed via syphoning.

So basically both systems require maintenance, BB tends to be more real time, SB's tend to be bigger maintenance bit less often. SO if you wash theose two out it becomes a personal choice on what look you like.


Mojo

 

[SRWoodcock]

Thanks every one for your comments. I think I'll try a sandy bed as I really like the sand sifting gobies.