ericrodriguez
NJRC Member
What would be the difference if I go no sand in that new setup??
-
Folks, if you've recently upgraded or renewed your annual club membership but it's still not active, please reach out to the BOD or a moderator. The PayPal system has a slight bug which it doesn't allow it to activate the account on it's own.
Sand or no sad in 45 JBJ
- Thread starter ericrodriguez
- Start date
The main thing the sand provides for the tank is more filtration capability. So going bare bottom would remove that. A couple other things to consider is if you will have livestock that would appreciate having sand like some species of gobies, wrasses, invertebrates etc. The sand also makes it easy for your rockwork to stay anchored. The main downside I often read are stories of areas of the sand turning hard from precipitation accumulation or detritus build up. Both of these though seem to me to be issues not caused by the sand but rather poor dosing and flow setups. Inevitably there will always be a bit of sand getting stirred up by changing flows or fish messing around.
I've never had a bare bottom tank but it is supposed to be easier to maintain in the sense that you could put power heads right on the bottom of the tank to push all detritus into the water column to be filtered out. It is easier to see if detritus is accumulating anywhere and adjust flow according or siphon out. Less money spent not buying sand is also notable. Having the bottom exposed also gives a different look that will eventually be encrusted entirely by coral and coraline unless you act to avoid that.
FishofHex on YouTube has a good video talking about it.
Personally I don't like the look of bare bottom tanks in general. In my mind when I see a cool bare bottom tank I almost always imagine it would look even better with sand haha However, until I actually run one I don't quite know if it would grow on me looking at it everyday.
I've never had a bare bottom tank but it is supposed to be easier to maintain in the sense that you could put power heads right on the bottom of the tank to push all detritus into the water column to be filtered out. It is easier to see if detritus is accumulating anywhere and adjust flow according or siphon out. Less money spent not buying sand is also notable. Having the bottom exposed also gives a different look that will eventually be encrusted entirely by coral and coraline unless you act to avoid that.
FishofHex on YouTube has a good video talking about it.
Personally I don't like the look of bare bottom tanks in general. In my mind when I see a cool bare bottom tank I almost always imagine it would look even better with sand haha However, until I actually run one I don't quite know if it would grow on me looking at it everyday.
I know that people often do 'sand pockets'. I'm planning this on my next build.
Paint the bottom white or tan. Put a couple pounds of sand in and let it get blown around till it settles by will of the powerheads.
Combination of both worlds. You can monitor detritus, still get coraline growth, and theres a couple pockets of sand for wrasses and nasarrius to bed down in.
A change of mind in either direction is easy to accomplish.
Always thought a full bottom of a giant sheet of GSP would be impressive, but probably not practical.
Paint the bottom white or tan. Put a couple pounds of sand in and let it get blown around till it settles by will of the powerheads.
Combination of both worlds. You can monitor detritus, still get coraline growth, and theres a couple pockets of sand for wrasses and nasarrius to bed down in.
A change of mind in either direction is easy to accomplish.
Always thought a full bottom of a giant sheet of GSP would be impressive, but probably not practical.
ericrodriguez
NJRC Member
Thanks... sand it is...