to deep sand bed or not?

[Joe0813]

this is going to probably cause one nice debate. and i have read the stickies about DSB. however being brand new to the saltwater hobby, is making a deep sand bed a smart thing or should i use a regular sand bed until i gain more knowledge and learn how to test the tank, check for diseases and so on? any info or comments is always good. thanks

[billdogg]

I have a shallow bed in my 60g tank and it is just fine. It's been up and running since 1992. I do have to add to it once or twice a year as the sand slowly dissolves (Buffering the water)

My other tank is a 150DT/120refugium/50 sump. Before the fuge came online about 2 years ago, it was impossible to keep my nitrates anywhere near an acceptable level. This tanks only inhabitant is a 4' Undulated Moray (A VERY messy eater). Hair Algae??? You don't know hair algae. Within a couple months of bringing the refugium online (6"DSB/LR &LRR/cheato) my nitrates are now pretty much undetectable even going 6 weeks between water changes. The other added bonus is that I have nearly doubled the size of the system, so anything that does go wrong goes wrong slowly, giving me time to catch it before it becomes a problem.

If I can talk the wife in to it, I will be adding a "display" refugium to the 60 when I build a new stand. Done properly, the refugium can be just as interesting to look at as the main tank.

I, however, do not care for a DSB in the main tank if for no other reason than it reduces the area available for other livestock.

HTH

[Frogmanx82]

With the advent of live rock, I think a DSB is unnecessary. If you're looking at getting a mandarin, which I saw from another of your posts, I'd use a 2 inch sand bed and focus on getting about 80 pounds of live rock. Try to get at least 3 pieces that are 15 pounds or more.

[mssvp]

Being new to the hobby myself, im starting with an average sand bed of around 2" in depth... Just in case... i need to learn many things before trying to potentially complicate myself with a DSB, not knowing how it will or can affect my tank. We'll see... still reading pro's and con's. good thread.

[Joe0813]

ya i think i will be going with the 2inch sand bed... i dont want to get myself over my head until i get really good with all the testing and everything else that comes with having a saltwater tank.... frogmanx82 i saw that you said 80lbs of live rock... is it ok to get a few pounds of live rock and seed dry rock? or should i just get all live?

[smellslikeTUNA]

Go shallow!

[bamf25]

Most people here that run a deep sand bed will put it in the fuge where it can be isolated (cut off from the rest of the system) if there are problems.

[izzy123]

FWIW, 2 inches could already be considered a DSB according to some pro's, or at least deep enough to function as one.

I do not use it, instead I have some extra liverock in my sump and a little bit of biopellets ( 1/3 of the recomended dose)

I do have some macroalgae that I'm currentley trying to battle with GFO, but my nitrates read 0 on my test kit

Hope this helps

Ivan

[Joe0813]

ya i dont think im going to go with the deep sand bed at all.... ill stick to the shallow and call it a day

[Frogmanx82]

Yeah you can seed your live rock. One thing about rock, it doesn't die. Don't fret about spending some money on some nice looking pieces. You'll have them a long time.

[zhewitt04]

I had a dsb in my 150 fuge. Nitrates never a promblem and algae was always in check. My 65 has no dsb and i struggle with algae. Just my two cents!

[Joe0813]

hmm was watching youtube videos on dsb now im back to square one.... it seems like a dsb would make the tank alot cleaner and help with nitrates if i do it right

[jgsteven]

Originally Posted by zhewitt04

I had a dsb in my 150 fuge. Nitrates never a promblem and algae was always in check. My 65 has no dsb and i struggle with algae. Just my two cents!

I have a similar experiance. I have two 29g tanks, one with a 5" DSB and the other with a 1" shallow sand bed. Both have similar bioload and feeding. The one with the DSB has minimal algae, while I am struggling with GHA on the other one. DSB do appear to work at reducing nitrates!

[mjhall85]

I went with a DSB in my 65gallon tank I am new to the hobby but I also plan on getting some sand dwelling creatures comes down to your personal preference more so I like the look of a DSB

[Joe0813]

i think ill do a search for the pros vs cons of having one

[mjhall85]

Yeah research is key in this hobby! if you go with a deep sand bed can get some cool creatures to go into it

[Joe0813]

Originally Posted by mjhall85

Yeah research is key in this hobby! if you go with a deep sand bed can get some cool creatures to go into it

like what.. i always thought that was bad to have inverts moving around the sand

[Joe0813]

anyone that has a deep sand bed and started off in the hobby with one have any input on this

[mjhall85]

Well for now I have Nassarius snails and they like to hide in the sand bed until feeding time. There is some other fish that are basically sand sifters they take in some sand and spit it back out exact names I would have to look in my email for them

[daplatapus]

My 2 cents probably aren't worth much here, but....
I put a DSB in my refugium, 6" or so. I've never had nitrates.. ever. Tank has been up and running since the end of August. I've got a half dozen fish, some coral, 3 shrimp and a CUC. I've got a bit of an algae problem, but that's probably from over feeding. I haven't done a water change yet, but have had my skimmer go crazy once and between that and my ATO, they probably did one for me. I figure around 30 gal or so.
My DSB looks awesome, clean thru and thru. I've got pods coming out the wazoo in there and bristle worms all over in the sand. I don't think I've got 50 gal/hr flowing thru it, nice and gentle. My chaeto doesn't even register a current so I turn it over every day to expose it all to the fuge light.
If you are going to put any creatures in there, you definitely don't want it going any deeper than 1" or so, or from my understanding, you run the risk of releasing hydrogen sulphide into the water. Mine has only what hitchhiked into the system on the LR. I would personally advise against any inverts in there, but again it's only my newbie opinion.
FWIW, I think my DSB is one reason for my awesome water quality, but I also have it set up so I can remove it from the system by turning 1 valve. I wouldn't put one in a sump configuration of drain/fuge/return only in a drain/return/fuge system.

[Joe0813]

My sump is a drain fuge return. Tonight I'm going to read the deep sand bed thread

[Reefaddict24]

I say go with the minimum amount. You can always add more but hard to take out.

[bennylab]

I started off with a dsb in a separate fuge so it could be taken offline if needed. My tank has only been running for less than a year, but I have never had any nitrate. I only keep 1-2 inches of sand in the DT.

[Reefaddict24]

It all depends on how big the tank is. Smaller tanks could be better kept clean by simple water changes. Bigger tanks with deep sand bed would sustain itself for a longer period of time cause its a bigger cycle of filtration in a huge tank. Deep sand bed is to help maintain and store nitrates and phosphates so the deeper the sand bed the more is stored. Just something to keep in mind.

[scarface70706]

i was on the fence on this subject as well. my 90 gallon tank has a sand bed of about 2 inchs. i was going to do a dsb but i decided not to since this is my first real (done right) tank and was worried it would crash. so as a experiment i did a dsb in my fuge and see how it does. if it fails all i need to do is scoop it out instead of scooping out the whole display. good luck.

ps: if you go the DSB route let us know how it goes. i heard when its establish it works really well. but then i hear some stories of the whole tank crashing because of it. so keep us posted because i like the idea of the dsb but i need to keep an eye on my experiment in the fuge to make me convert over.