How Deep? DSB

[Anonymous]

4-6" of fine grain i.e. sugar sized sand is the ideal.

 

[Anthony1]

You could slope the DSB from ~ 4 inches in the front to ~ 6 inches in the back.

 

[foozed]

FWIW:
I have a 55G, and only have at the max 4" in the left half of the tank.. the right half is at most 3".. and some of the mid sections (front to back mid) where the rock is, only about 2 inches..

I do a 10 gallong water change every 2 weeks, and test with Sea Chem test kits.. and my nitrates seldomly rise about 5 - 7..

So.. I'm actually quite happy with an overall less than 4". I wonder if the sandbed is actually doing anything, or if its the water changes keeping the levels low.

BTW, the sand is HD Southdown, and I have an Aqua-C remora skimmer, with the overflow box and bubble eliminator.

 

[Ph]

I have a 100 gallon with a small bioload and 3 1/2" of fine sand. On low range test nitrates=0 after one year with no water change. I also harvest macro out of the tank. Works for me, your milage may vary.

HTH

PH

 

[olgakurt]

The effective depth for a sand bed in a reef tank depends upon several primary factors: grain size, organic content in the sand, and water flow.

Most advocate 4-6" as a min. (assuming sugar size sand and little to no organics) to be safe. I have measured (in my tank) denitrifying conditions in less than 1/2" in places up to 2.5" in others.
_________________
bank bailout

 

[31-2c]

I have 4" of varied sizes in my 55g.

 

[russelas]

I am setting up a new 55 gal reef and I am going to try a sand bed instead of crushedcoral. I really don't want to have half of the tank sand though for appearence reasons. I was wondering if what is a good depth of sand to have? What is the minimum amount recomended to get benefits of sand but keep in mind appearence? This is a show tank.

Thanks