Why I am no longer in favor of fine sand...

[Sk8r]

Can you say---into everything?
I used to have medium-grade aragonite with some crushed coral bits in it that algified and looked like Ned in the First Reader...
So I got pretty white fine sand on my next setup.

Never, ever, ever again. That stuff blows. Everywhere. It blows through the bottom weir on my downflow (corner, of course!) where it can't be gotten out. It clogs the bottom of my downflow box. It gets into the pipes. I have high flow and if I don't watch it, it annoys the corals. I have a jawfish and it can't build properly without larger bits: it's made a house out of a green star polyp. It annoys the fish. It piles up in the front of my bowfront and easily overwhelms bottom-sitting corals.

I had no such problems with my other sand. I am meditating the VERY laborious process of removing the stuff in favor of coarse sand. But nothing will get it out of the downflow except completely breaking my tank down. It's in the hoses. That means it's in my pumps, grinding away.

We are just NOT happy with it.

If you're considering a setup and what sand to get, this is FYI.

[acrodave]

a lot of that fine sand like the black stuff has no buffering ability

[kimsie]

I agree with you - I used it in one of my tanks and I hate it!

[CyanoMagnet]

Im starting to hate sand period.

[GIJOE007]

I used fine sand in my old sps tank...hated it!!! Especially for a sps tank with the amount of flow you need, the sand just blows every where...no matter how many times you adjust your power heads / closed loop returns.

Crushed coral is for me in my new 65 reef tank...I did use a fine DSB in my sump where the current is not so great

[techreef]

i used fine aragonite in my setup, covered with a 1-2" layer of live sand from TBS. The live sand is course enough to weigh the aragonite down, and now everything has a biofilm on it so stays put. I think for an effective DSB, you need the fine stuff, but if you don't run a DSB, the doors are wide open. I'm not running crazy flow through my tank, so I feel for you SPS tankers and your fine sand! Sk8r, can you put a thin layer of coarser sand on top, or would that look dumb?

[SeanT]

Love my Barebottom. :)

[Sk8r]

Techreef, I may, once I've pulled as much of it as I can conveniently get it---I have 2 sandbeds (see other post on dodging bullets) so one can sustain the main tank while I fix its sandbed, but what a pain! This was going to be so good for the sifting fish, but it isn't. I want my old crappy sand back! ;) I'm afraid whatever fine stuff I leave is still going to walk, so I'm going to see how much I can get out---not this week, however! Got a lot to do!

[CyanoMagnet]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=12757982#post12757982 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by SeanT
Love my Barebottom. :)

How often do you change water?

[zacharytrimble]

Yeah, the fine "sugar" sand is supposed to be best for de-nitrifying...so having that on bottom with a more medium grade on top is a good idea I think. I'm about to upgrade to a 125 from 75...I have 3" sandbed of kinda fine sand...and when I'm ugrade, I'm going to cover that sand with 40 lbs of medium grade sand...and hopefully that will work out better for me.

[SeanT]

Every 2-4 weeks I will do a waterchange.
Could do less though but since I have access to NSW for no charge it's easy to do.

[CyanoMagnet]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=12759436#post12759436 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by zacharytrimble
Yeah, the fine "sugar" sand is supposed to be best for de-nitrifying...so having that on bottom with a more medium grade on top is a good idea I think. I'm about to upgrade to a 125 from 75...I have 3" sandbed of kinda fine sand...and when I'm ugrade, I'm going to cover that sand with 40 lbs of medium grade sand...and hopefully that will work out better for me.

I've tried a similar aproach in the past. It does'nt work. Basicaly the sands will inevitably get mixed up at some point with the fine sugar sand coming to the top, and yup you guessed it, blowing all over the place.

[CyanoMagnet]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=12759467#post12759467 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by SeanT
Every 2-4 weeks I will do a waterchange.
Could do less though but since I have access to NSW for no charge it's easy to do.

What I am getting at is..

Can I get undetectable nitrates with barebottom, using sugar/vodka/vinegar dosing , a refugium with a small area DSB and macroalgae, 100 pounds of liverock (72gallon tank) ?

I have minimal time on my hands to do frequent water changes. This is one reason I have been reluctant to let my DSB go. But I realy am starting to hate it and looking for ways out.

Also what happens to all the fish poop with BB? Does it just collect there till you siphon it out?

[NewbieForever]

If I am using a sand bed, and do in my softie tanks and refugiums I find a 1/3 part oolite 2/3 part sp. seafloor grade sand is the best combo.

Although sand can be done in high flow tanks with out sandstorms it is easier to avoid it and leave it in a RSB or fuge. I like lots of flow low in my sps tank to carry the detritus out over the overflow.

[SeanT]

If you transfer to barebottom the correct way and "cook" your rocks, have a decent skimmer you will have low nutrients with NONE of these things you listed.

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=12762195#post12762195 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by CyanoMagnet
Can I get undetectable nitrates with barebottom, using sugar/vodka/vinegar dosing , a refugium with a small area DSB and macroalgae, 100 pounds of liverock (72gallon tank) ?

[SeanT]

The "How to go Barebottom thread." (http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=650985)

[Slakker]

I have sugar sized aragonite in a 12g with about 450 gph and have zero problems with it getting kicked up...and I used to have ~690gph blowing around in there without problems from my sand.

Granted, it took me about three days of tweaking the output from my pumps. I love the stuff, though...you can't beat it for appearance's sake IMO.