deep sand bed or not ?

hi there reefers , just setting up a 600 litre reef tank and was wondering if anybody could tell me what the benifits of a deep sand bed r . my setup will encorporate 50kg of live rock and a large skimmer in the sump tunze doc 9011 and a laguna max flow 6000lph return pump . in the display tank circulation will b provided by 2 tunze 6105 streams , apart from the sand question can anyone c any probs with this setup ,many thanks .:

 

as for deep sand beds, if you have fish or anything that burrows they will much prefer a deeper bed, and if you have more live sand, there is more living things in that sand to help with your water....id recommend having a deep bed to what you can afford....im not sure if there is a too deep though

 

i wish i could help, but im not good with metric. but,

Welcome to 3reef

 

deep sand beds have their place. but that place, IMO, is not in your main display tank.

If you want one, put it in the sump/refugium area so you can do maintenance on it later.

If things were to burrow into the deep sand bed, it would release nasty stuff. You do not want this.


There is a difference between having a thick layer of sand in your DT and an actual "DSB" of 4-6 inches.

 

worms and micro fauna love them adding a food source and certain fish like them and plenty more!

 

I could not imagine having a display without one but you need to do your own research and decide for yourself.
DSB's are getting a bad rap lately but its not deserved in my opinion, its not the DSB, its the owner that keeps messing with it. A DSB should be left alone to do its thing and not stirred or vacuumed and that is my opinion based on my 7.5 year old 330 lb DSB in a 100G display that has never been disturbed, is as white as it was when I installed it unrinsed and shows undetectable on nitrates and phosphates contrary to what some may say. They work and they work well but you need to understand how they work and respect that. If you like to redecorate or have fish that dig or a sand sifting star then a functioning DSB is not for you.

 

I'm not a huge fan of DSBs in the main display either. They can be very helpful and can add a lot of diverse fauna. However, I always worry about them if I ever have to move. Risk of disturbing it seems to outweigh the benefits, even if the risk is small. Also, all sand beds can become nutrient sinks and for long term health, it can be helpful to replace them occasionally. It's more challenging to do so with a DSB IMO.

Tyrant46290, you sort of can have too deep. The problem is there is no way to know how deep that is. The deeper the bed, the more potential denitrifying bacteria it can maintain. However, if nitrate gets depleted and there are accumulated organics, the bacteria can use sulfate as an electon acceptor instead which produces hydrogen sulfide. Ideally the send bed would just be deep enough to support just enough bacteria to process the nitrate. Also, it is believed that benthic organisms are needed to channel the nitrate down into the substrate. If you get deeper, there could be less of them and less nitrate. Usually it's not a big issue though, but something to consider.

 

Here's some reading: DeepSandBeds

Pro's (or advocates):
Lowers nitrates
Lowers phosphates
Natural habitat for sandsifters
Hosts plenty of other "benefical" life to your aquarium

Con's (or critics):
Choosing the right size sand or depth can be dyamic to your system
Hard to maintain in tanks with high waterflow (like SPS dominant tanks)
If disturbed, or improperly taken care of, can crash a tank

Education is key. Read up.

Personally, I love DSBs... in my fuge. Since putting one in, I've been at 0 nitrate and 0 phosphate. I dont like DSBs in the DT, as I personally do not think they are very asthetically pleasing.

 

+1

What you are discribing is a stagnant bed. No different than the dangers of having a stagnant tank. Yet we all know how to maintain proper flow and filtration in a tank and keep it from going stagnant. No different for a sand bed.

Beds need to be maintained... not by stirring them, but by the organisims that inhabit them. they till the sand, keeping them circulated and clean. As with everything in an aquarium... proper feeding and filtration do the most to keep excess nutrients under control... the sand, rock and marco take care of the rest just like in the wild. A healthy bed is on with tons of worms, snails, detrivores doing their job. It's my opinion as well that any problems with DSB are from the owners.

 

The benefits of a sand bed besides looking good are they help denitrify the water. Yet you do not need 6" to do that. What most people talk about when talking of DSB are 4-6". That is a lot of sand in a display and with so much other stuff in ther... lots of live rock... you can have problems. Most people put a DSB in the fuge where they can be better taken care of.

Having said that a sand bed of 3-4 inches can still denitrify and provide habitat for what ever wants to live there. My 3" bed bubbles nitrogen all the time.

You need a good clean up crew of detrivores... snails maybe a sand sifter star for as big as your tank is.

Keep as much rock off the sand as possible. That means putting your rock work on pvc stilts or use bridges and what not to minimize how much rock sits on the sand.

Keep good flow across your bed. That get done by keeping good flow in your tank. No dead spots even across the sand bed.

Here is a good article.
http://http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2003-06/rs/feature/index.php