Sand bed - What would you recomend

A

AquaMan

[Alright here is the deal, i am consdering buying 46 gal bowfront from a guy and upgrading from my 29. In my 29 I was told to use just about 1/4 -1/2 inch of crushed coral for my bed. I hear alot of talk about live sand on this forum though. What does everyone think would work best in my tank?? And what does everyone think would be the best way to transfer everything over??]
 
[Well Patrick from Patrick, Tx :p

This is one of those debatable topics. You can use 4" of sand to create a DSB. This will help denitrify your tank for about 5 years in most cases.

Others will say to use none, and just have massive current to keep detritus (waste / pollution) in the water column so your skimmer can export it. Anything larger can be siphoned out during a water change.

I have about 2.5" in my tank. I still have several buckets of sand outside, but I've not decided yet if I want to put that in my setup or not.

I did use CC for 6 years in my 29g, 2" deep. It just required siphoning during water changes to reduce the accumulation of detritus. I siphoned about 4 times a year. More is probably better, but that is what I did.]
 
[This is such a debated topic it really depends on your personal preference. There are pros and cons to all subtrates so ultimately you'll have to make that decision on your own conclusions drawn form research. I have had both a bare bottom tank and a tank with 4"-6" of southdown sand. I myself prefer the bare bottom.]
 
[Patrick,
As you have peobably already noticed there are pros and cons for each way, I believe that after all of the reading on the subject (Look back there are some great threads here) I have done it comes down to: What do you want to do?
I can see the benefits of each, I have a DSB with a plenum because I read alot about GARF before I started. I am only 6 months into my 1st tank and I have nothing to compare it to so I am guessing that I am doing OK.]
 
[My last reef tank had a bare bottom, with a spray bar across the back, blowing any detritus to the front of the tank and keeping the glass clean. My new tank has a 4" sand bed with silica sand from Home Depot.

Lots of research to do on both methods, the bare bottom method is often called the 'berlin method' which may aid your research.]
 
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