Fine sand

[Platehead]

When I was setting up a new frag tank, I had had this brain storm to put this in, I absolutely love it. But from people I know, I've heard that I'm looking for bad news with this stuff. Am I looking for trouble with this stuff, Is there a way to put crushed coral over it and make it safer or am I not going to be happy with this stuff?

 

[Cherokee_Dude]

I have fine sand in my display with no issues. What bad news are you referring to and why would it not be safe?

 

[Platehead]

From what I've heard, no flow can get through the sand and it builds up nitrates and when it is destrubed it realease the nitrates back into the water and kill the occupants. How fine is your sand, mine is as small as a sugar granual.

 

[JohnK]

If anything it's the other way around. Course sand / crushed coral makes it very easy for detritis to settle in and get trapped.

Any sandbed has the potential to accumulate a lot of waste and eventually become a nasty mess, but fine sand is not anymore problematic by any stretch. The low amount of flow in a fine sandbed actually encourages de-nitrification.

A lot of people will reccomend that any sand bed be replaced every few years to avoid the accumulation issues that can happen. Running deep sand beds of fine sand used to be more or less the dominant approach in reefkeeping. More reccenty it's become more of a debated issue due to the concerns of nutrient / waste build up, but that didn't stop many very healthy tanks from thriving with Deep fine sand beds for many years. I've been running deep fine sand beds for as long as I can remember and I've never encountered the problems that some say are "inevitable"

 

[P-Nut]

get a fish that will move the sand around and you will be fine.

I am also puting fine sand in my aquarium. Nice black sand, sugar size, and i will go with a 4" sand bed.

 

[JohnK]

Just DON'T get a sand sifting star, they are very bad for sand beds.

 

[Cherokee_Dude]

Any sandbed has the potential to accumulate a lot of waste and eventually become a nasty mess, but fine sand is not anymore problematic by any stretch. The low amount of flow in a fine sandbed actually encourages de-nitrification.

Completely agree with John here. It's one of the reasons that Remote Deep Sand Beds {RDSB} work well. Mine is also sugar sized {South Down Sand} and I don't have any issues. Many people have had great success with this type of sand. It's a matter of preference.

 

[beckbrass]

Just DON'T get a sand sifting star, they are very bad for sand beds.

Why? I remember something being mentioned but don't know what it was.

 

[JohnK]

A healty DSB will end up full of tiny worms and other critters which play an important role in eating some of the waste that will settle into the sand, and they help to keep the sand stirred.

Sand sifting stars stir the sand as they decimate all those other good guys, then the stars tend to starve once they have eaten everything good in the sandbed.