Sand vs No Sand...Further questions

Its kind of an all or nothing if your looking to keep sps and benefit from the concept of a barebottom. I personally think that having a shallow bed of sand is the same as having a deep bed.....in the end its still blowing. I would go bb and call it good if your planning on an sps tank, you might consider getting a few mj's with mods and pointing them straight down to help keep everything suspended.

 

Bare Bottom is the way to go.... plus if you really don't like it, you can always add sand to it (easier than removing sand)

 

I think removing sand is easier... Just stick a hose in there and suck it out. Adding sand clouds everything and gets all over everything. Just my opinion though.

If you are going the SPS route go bare bottom. Any sand in the tank can be blown around, depth of bed just means there is more to blow. If you want a lower maintainance tank for softies, you want to keep sand sifting critters such as gobbies or starfish, or you want to try an anemone that needs its foot burried go with sand. With sand my philosophy is "Go big or go home." If you are going to have to restrict your flow you better get the most out of your sand bed. If I was to lightly dust the bottom of a tank I would use crushed coral. Good surface area for pods and bacterial growth and can be suctioned clean.

 

For the record, I have some sand in my tank (For my Goby), I don't have any sand storms and my SPS all seems pretty happy.

-JB

 

I would stay away from sand ,I have had a sand bed for the last 3 years and i would never go back It's amazing how many nasty creatures and bacteria live in there.nitrates and so on .It has taken about a month and a half of vaccing to get all the sand that keeps coming out of my rocks.I would start with bare bottom and if you dont like it tear everything out dump some sand in and aqua scape again.JMO