to sand or not to sand; that is the question

[spacenyc]

been told many different things from people; use no sand; use crushed coral from my africans; use a deep sand bed; use no more than 3 inches and latest; use half tank of no sand and half tank of deep sand bed. whats the opionions out there. i have one tank with 3 inch sand and one bare and i dont notice a difference. personally i like the look of sand.

 

[bad coffee]

i like the look of the sand too. the ocean doesn't have a plastic bottom, so my tank doesn't either.

B

 

[Scion_TC2005]

been told many different things from people; use no sand; use crushed coral from my africans; use a deep sand bed; use no more than 3 inches and latest; use half tank of no sand and half tank of deep sand bed. whats the opionions out there. i have one tank with 3 inch sand and one bare and i dont notice a difference. personally i like the look of sand.

In my nano reef I have just a thin layer of sand to cover the glass bottom and enough depth for my sand-sifting star and snails. I have a Pic in my gallery of my nano. I don't like thick sand beds to much of a hassle.

 

[NYreefNoob]

only real reason for no sand is in a high flow tank, ive done both and as much as sand create's problem astetically, i went back to it, no sand limits types of fish, bb = easy maintance can just syphon bottom of tank

 

[ssmtcarlo]

Dont use fine sand

 

[tosiek]

*waits for the post saying that most corals are found nowhere near sand.......*

or

*there are 50 posts on this topic, use the search engine*

Its personal preference. IF your desciding between the two you should know by now what you want out of it. Asthetics, ease of maintenance, biological filtration, animal needs.

IMO, nothing beats the flicker of light along the sand bed along with the mini sand dunes that form.

 

[NavyNano212]

In my nano reef I have just a thin layer of sand to cover the glass bottom and enough depth for my sand-sifting star and snails. I have a Pic in my gallery of my nano. I don't like thick sand beds to much of a hassle.

How long have you had your sand star? When I first began my nano, I bought one because I thought was beneficial(I didn't do my research:banghead. It perished(which distraught me tremendously:sad2 within 6 months due to starvation. It eats ravenously and needs enought sand to remain buried. Once mine started to remain on top of the sand, it was only a matter of weeks before it became weak and a meal for the tank.
Just my experience. I have a 24G Nano.
Best of luck

 

[Timbo]

I like sand. I have used fine sand, crushed coral, black sand, and a mixture. If you want to put wrasse in your tank you will most likely need sand since many of them bury themselves.

 

[Wes]

i like having no sand...

Sure sand can look nice, but i don't like dealing w/ the downsides.

I have about 80x turnover in my tank and the fish look like they float in air. When i had sand i couldn't have nearly the amount of flow and there always seemed to be particles of whatever floating around.

And there is more room for corals because you can just set them on the bottom and let them grow w/out the worry of sand irritating them.