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folks who have sand... how deep is it?


treesprite

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People who actually have sand.....

 

How deep do you have it? I know the general guidelines for sand in reef tanks, but would like to know what people are actually doing in practice (aside from bare bottom).

 

I have not had sand in the little temporary tanks I have running, and was only using a light coating of sand for a couple years in my old 75. But for the 50g I'm setting up, I had to use a lot to cover the CL manifold. I think it is about 2.5". It's been so many years since I had a sandbed deep enough to impact anything, that I have some vague sense of apprehension about it.

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I only use sand for decoration not any sort of benefit. If anything it’s detrimental and a lotttt of dirt gets stuck in I­t­ close to the rocks. Next tank i do will have epoxy and sand mixed together and put into those hard to clean spaces so i can avoid Detritus build up in those hard to reach spots.

 

 

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Heard marine biologists say that the majority of beneficial bacteria resides in the sand and rock but not the water. I've done 60% water changes and no nitrate spike occurred. Sand is a filter. I suppose you could compensate with other filtration methods. Detritus laden sand beds, when stirred up, can become a huge problem.

 

3 inches is plenty. I have 2 and no nitrate problems. 

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2 to 2.5 inches in mine (24g tank). Actual live sand from the Gulf of Mexico that came with the aquacultured rock from TBS.  2 years old and I still often discover little bits of life in it either tunneling up against the glass or exploring the surface at night. Just noticed some chitons of some sort for the first time earlier this week.

 

So far I haven't had any negative experiences with it other than just having to be a little careful with flow from my gyre.. And I prefer the natural look of a sand bed versus bare-bottom.

 

If I ever upgrade to a larger tank (as I hope to do), it'll definitely have at least a 2" sand bed as well ... regardless of whether the tank occupants include a pistol shrimp and some wrasses (which is part of my plan/hope at the moment).

Edited by malacoda
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Around 4 inches here. I have a Jansens wrasse. He likes to bury himself in the sand bed sometimes. I’m also planning on getting more non-reef safe burying wrasses.

That is pushing the boundaries of what people consider to be a DSB. So I'm curious.... does the wrasse stick to the same general areas when stirring up the sand? If you get more sand diggers who would be digging in a greater variety of areas, it would be interesting to see a detailed account of water parameteters starting from before the livestock has been added.

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That is pushing the boundaries of what people consider to be a DSB. So I'm curious.... does the wrasse stick to the same general areas when stirring up the sand? If you get more sand diggers who would be digging in a greater variety of areas, it would be interesting to see a detailed account of water parameteters starting from before the livestock has been added.

What parameters are you after? I have a pretty good history of most stuff that easily measured at home and three Triton results thus far as well. With that said, the pistol shrimp and diamond goby move the sand a lot and I do vacuum it three to four times a year as well (though I don't get much out of it). 

Edited by madweazl
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2-7 inches here. Newby with new tank.

 

There are lots of anecdotal opinions out there about many things on reefkeeping, giving reasons for almost any action, very little of which is even remotely correlated to things that would pass undergrad bio. (Of course, some people's anecdotal experience is worth more than others, a function of the number and type of tanks they've kept for how long, their marine bio cred, and the logic of what they say)

 

Why, how deep, and how to manage a sandbed in the display tank is one of them. (To say nothing about sandbeds in the fuge or remote deep sandbeds. Or dead sand with nitrifying bacteria versus wild collected live sand with lots of critters it). I keep it at that depth for my jawfish; they force me to have a partial deep sand bed( i am on the fence whether or not a "jawfish hill" is better for them than a full 7"'dsb) If it weren't for them, I'd only keep enough probably two inches or so in the display; i simply don't want crap accumulating in it and don't want to bother always vacuuming really deep sand. What I'd do in a fuge or remotely is a seperate issue.

 

One supposed benefit of a dsb is a place for denitrifying bacteria to live. However, macroalgae. marinepure and some filter media also claim to be able to do that. Regardless, i am not sure that I'm seeing this effect yet in my tank. It remains a subject of intense interest to me (though I am not sure that i'm going to change anything, and don't want to change things quickly)

Edited by KingOfAll_Tyrants
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Mine is 2-3 inches. It is the really fine white sand and I stir it every week. After 2+ years the sand still looks brand new. If you don't stir the sand it will get pretty dirty over time.

 

Darren

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