Bare bottom?

[Patrick]

I am in 2 minds whether to go bare bottom (the tank, tat is) or have an inch of white aragonite sand. Some say sand will cause nitrate problem and ich will be a problem. Tried DSN before and algae on front of tank looked real ugly. What other methods do you use? Appreciate all comments and opinions!

[atos]

Patrick, I'm the one that will encourage you in BB or 1" of coarser sand only for estetic reasons. In my expeince DSB just get a nutrition bad over time.

Other method, please , feel free to invastigate on the ZEOVIT method.

cheers

[Patrick]

Thanks bro for your help. I heard of reefers silicon (glue0 sand to a perspex sheet (size same as bottom of tank) and glue another perspex on top like sandwich with sand in between. Then put the whole thing into the tank. Looks like bottom got sand but easy to clean. Is this advisable?

[atos]

Hi Patrick , again, as long as you decide go without DSB and other disaadvantage deep bads of sand could cary, you could try those ideas. Wavebox from TUNZE is great device, it desediment entire tank decoration.

[Patrick]

Thank you atos bro.

[dreamzcape]

patrick i think that having some sand for aesthetics is fine coz the idea i think is for the water circulation to be great enough to lift the wastes off the tank bottom and in this case the sand bed. I currently have a sandbed for aesthetics but weekly i will use a powerhead to stir it so that the filters can filter it out

Main thing is about maintenance i guess, whichever you choose.

cheerz

[Patrick]

Thanks bros for your comments. I have a 3ft tank started with 3 inch DSB, fishes and corals always not well so removed to 1 inch. But the water circulation pumps and fishes always create sand dunes leaving some part bare - quite ugly.

I am going to upgrade to 5ft so decided to try BB on the 3ft. Yesterday removed all the sand (back breaking man!) and now bare bottom. My daugther complained tank is not nice anymore

Some Tangs have ich every now and then so will see if BB helps.

Thanks guys!

[nakazoru]

Thanks bros for your comments. I have a 3ft tank started with 3 inch DSB, fishes and corals always not well so removed to 1 inch. But the water circulation pumps and fishes always create sand dunes leaving some part bare - quite ugly.

I am going to upgrade to 5ft so decided to try BB on the 3ft. Yesterday removed all the sand (back breaking man!) and now bare bottom. My daugther complained tank is not nice anymore

Some Tangs have ich every now and then so will see if BB helps.

Thanks guys!

Funny to hear that your tangs get ich from DSB.

Find out more please. Our ocean have very deep sand bed. My god, I think the ocean is filled with ich...

[Patrick]

Reckon the ocean is a very very very big tank, parameters more stable and natural forces at work to prevent ich

I will update here soon to see if BB is the nemesis to ich

[alanseah]

ich got nothing to do with DBS or BB..

If want to go DSB then go all the way. DSB = 3~4" thick only.

If want BB also good. But if somewhere in the mid like shallow sandbed then I advise against it. Cause a shallow sandbed is worst then a DSB.

[brittlestars]

But if somewhere in the mid like shallow sandbed then I advise against it. Cause a shallow sandbed is worst then a DSB.

Just curious, may I know why is shallow sand bed worse than DSB?

[dreamzcape]

coz it traps detritus and yet the same time, it does not have the abilities of DSB for NNR so it actuallly just traps detritus =)

[Patrick]

As promised, here is my update. Confirmed DSB got nothing to do with Ich cuz after removing all the sand to become BB, got myself another PBT, also kana Ich.

[Marineman]

coz it traps detritus and yet the same time, it does not have the abilities of DSB for NNR so it actuallly just traps detritus =)

Correct, also build up nitrates at the same time.