Do I want a barebottom or a shallow sandbed?

[chunchma]

Please someone tell me the pros and cons of a barebottom tank and a shallow sandbed.

I am about to go insane trying to figure out the best way to go for an all marine fish tank with live rock.

thanks

 

[Oceans Ferevh]

Well, I think barebottom looks like crap; that's con, but not very helpful :wink:

 

[Anonymous]

I think it's personal opinion.

I'm with O F regarding a BB, though.

 

[Unarce]

You can have a great reef either way, but having a sand bed really makes a tank look brighter, which is why many install starboard to their BB's. I do feel that reeftanks (particularly SPS tanks) don't need to be as sterile and detritus free as BB supporters suggest.

Here are some templates that I post quite often whenever this subject comes up:

If you were to set up a reef tank with high current, than there would be a lot of bare areas if you had a SB less than an inch high. 2-3 inches is the absolute best way to go. It would be incorrect to claim that a sand bed provides 'more capacity to nitrify and denitrify' simply because it's deeper.

"As much as 70 to 90 percent of the overall denitrification was located in the uppermost centimeter. The remainder was found at 1-3 cm depth"

-T.K. Anderson 1984 "Diurnal Variations of Nitrogen Cycling in Coastal, Marine Sediments."

"anaerobic habitat can be as small as 1mm, that aerobic and anaerobic bacteria essentially coexist, and that as little as 0.08mm distance is sufficient for nitrification and denitrification to take place simultaneously."

-Ecology and Evolution in Anoxic Worlds. Oxford University Press, Fenchel, T. and B.J. Finlay. 1995.

The misunderstanding is that areas with low levels of oxygen are a must for denitrification. Since we now know that aerobic and anaerobic bacteria exist together in the upper portion of the SB, than the heavy oxygen levels of our tanks would not be a factor. It's unlikely that denitrification will occur in the deep areas of a DSB, especially if nitrates never reach it in the first place.

I'd also like to point out that a deeper sand bed doesn't necesarily equate to more biodiversity of life. A shallow sand bed of numerous grain-size will create a number of different environments housing more life than a DSB.

Another misconception is that the smaller the grain-size, the more surface area there is for bacteria. This would certainly hold true if we assumed that every grain was a perfectly round sphere. But, take into account the rough edges, crevices, and porosity of larger grains, then it becomes quite comparable.

Like many, I like the pleasing aesthetics of fine sand (which makes up most of my shallow sand bed). But, having multi-grains with the larger pieces turning into miniature live rock themselves has certainly added to the sand bed's functionality as well as its appearance.

 

[Tackett]

My opinion, I dont think it matters either way you go as long as you have an assload of flow. But keep in mind that a shallow sandbed, with an appropriate amount of flow, will probably show the bottom. I would put some starboard down, and then put about a half inch, to an inch of live sand down on top of it, just because I like the way it looks. Personally I hate bare bottom tanks, I think they are ugly. But all depends on how you set it up.

 

[Anonymous]

After doing a lot of reading, I just set up my 72 with a shallow sand bed. Yes, the flow can dig down to the bare bottom in spots, but what I did was position rock over those areas and adjusted the flow in the tank.

Actually, I have a Chesapeake bay-like little harbor made out of rock on one end which looks nice.

HTH

 

[ChrisRD]

Most people who setup a BB system are trying to achieve the lowest nutrient environment they can. In a fish-only tank that wouldn't be as much of a concern for me, so if you like the look of the sand, I'd say use it...

 

[Tackett]

Hey chris, I may be way off base here, but I read that "new here read this" link on your signature. Was that written with a certain "someone" in mind? Or was that a statment of principle that just so happens to have coincidence with an archetypal person?

 

[ChrisRD]

I plead the 5th...

 

[Anonymous]

I plead the 5th...

Make mine Jack Daniels

 

[Tackett]

Grey goose for me

 

[Anonymous]

Absolute please.