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Help me choose bare bottom or sand.


jacobB89

Bare bottom or sand/crushed coral  

21 members have voted

  1. 1. bare bottom or coarse sand?

    • course sand/crushed coral
      13
    • bare bottom/star board
      8


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I cant make up my mind so want some help and more or less you help me decide with a vote.

 

star board/bare bottom 

 

or 

sand 

CaribSea Arag-Alive special grade

 

 

for a 180 gallon tank mixed reef

Edited by jacobB89
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I say 1/4 inch of sand. You get some piles and some bare spots. Plus it's thin enough the critters keep it poop free. Shouldn't have a nitrate or water quality issue in a 180 unless you have a skimpy skimmer.

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I say bare your bottom and turn up the flow.

That's a bonus I know lol

 

I say 1/4 inch of sand. You get some piles and some bare spots. Plus it's thin enough the critters keep it poop free. Shouldn't have a nitrate or water quality issue in a 180 unless you have a skimpy skimmer.

Good option I have a cs3 skimmer with swabbie.

BB. I hate my crushed coral now.

Main reason you hate it?

 

Sent from my DROID RAZR using Tapatalk

 

 

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I love sand....because I love wrasses!

EXACTLY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

and zombie snails lol... its too early for me to remember the real name...

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Just enough sand to get by, IMO, my sandbed is an inch or less, still works for aesthetics, and sand bed creatures. It's a personal choice though, go with what you like!

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Part of the decision depends on how lazy you are.  I can only offer that observation because I'm an extremely lazy person.  For the first year the sandbed is a real benefit, after that it tends to become a pit of fish poop that is difficult to clean.  Combine the cleaning difficulty with the fact that the "newness" of the reef has worn off and you have a tank that is both hard to clean and easy to ignore.

 

Because I understand my lazy side, I vote for bare bottom.

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Sand, but I have gobys and a wrasse. We enjoy watching the pistol shimp and goby move the sand around.

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OK so for sand wise what kind are most using the special grade or something finer

 

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I use Arig-Alive fuji pink sand

I have that my 29 gallon tank it just seems like a blew around the lot

 

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i used to use the fine sand but I like flow too much so when I moved and reset the tank up again I used the larger grain live sand. It blew around for a little bit but then when the bacteria came around it settled down and I am much happier with it.  I have 4 huge tunzes in that 180 and not sand storms

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I have a sand bed now and will have BB when I upgrade my tank (in may). With sand, my goby keep moving the sand all over place. I have to keep blow the sand off my corals.

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I voted sand but I do not include crushed coral in that vote.

 

I used special grade.

Edited by Jim Mc
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If you go with sand, you really have to treat it as an organism.   I originally went with a shallow sand bed and over-sized my filtration knowing it would eventually add nutrients.  It was a good plan for about 2 years and then it turned into a solid rock.   When I shut down the tank to do a re-build I was barely able to break it up into pieces small enough to remove from the tank.

 

When I re-built I went with Starboard and built a little sandbox that I hid behind the rocks for the wrasses.

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We are so helpful. The vote is 50 / 50.  That tells you something too.  Neither method is overwhelmingly better than the other. I think that means it comes down to personal choice. 

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If you go with sand, you really have to treat it as an organism.   I originally went with a shallow sand bed and over-sized my filtration knowing it would eventually add nutrients.  It was a good plan for about 2 years and then it turned into a solid rock.   When I shut down the tank to do a re-build I was barely able to break it up into pieces small enough to remove from the tank.

 

When I re-built I went with Starboard and built a little sandbox that I hid behind the rocks for the wrasses.

 

that is absolutely true...you need to keep either moved around by inhabitants or if you are pretty shallow a quick stir around every so often....

but aesthetically its so pleasing to the eye....

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I'm with Jenn on just liking the way a sand bed looks in the tank.  I also keep plenty of critters in the tank to keep it stirred up.

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