Success/Failure stories of taking out sand and going bare bottom

[NoobishReefer22]

Hello All!

I have been considering taking out my sand and going bare bottom and was wondering if any of you guys would be willing to share your success/failure stories with me! I am running a 80 gallon AIO and tank has been running for about 8 months. I only have about 40 lbs of sand in my tank around a 1 inch layer.

 

[208reef]

I've seen some people attempt to go bare bottom, but most of them ended up adding sand later on because they struggled to maintain proper biological filtration. If you already have a sand bed, I think removing it would be devastating to the current stability of your tank unless you have planned other means of achieving the same levels of nutrient breakdown.

 

[helmsreef]

I didn’t pull my sand out but I did not use sand in the next upgrade I did and I never looked back. I don’t think I would ever go back to sand unless if it was for a specific setup like for wrasses

 

[NoobishReefer22]

I've seen some people attempt to go bare bottom, but most of them ended up adding sand later on because they struggled to maintain proper biological filtration. If you already have a sand bed, I think removing it would be devastating to the current stability of your tank unless you have planned other means of achieving the same levels of nutrient breakdown.

My play is too mostly up my flow a little by adding another power head so I can increase my nutrient export. I have lots of ditritus building up.

 

[betareef]

Too artifial looking for me. It has too look like a reef. Otherwise might as well keep goldfish

 

[helmsreef]

My play is too mostly up my flow a little by adding another power head so I can increase my nutrient export. I have lots of ditritus building up.

It’s very useful for nutrient export and your bottom will just end up being purple if you have coralline in your system

 

[Fish Fan]

I've seen some people attempt to go bare bottom, but most of them ended up adding sand later on because they struggled to maintain proper biological filtration. If you already have a sand bed, I think removing it would be devastating to the current stability of your tank unless you have planned other means of achieving the same levels of nutrient breakdown.

This is a very good reply, but I do disagree somewhat

Many report that a sandless tank is the easiest tank they've maintained, in the very long term. Certainly, your milage may vary.

A tank with sand is said to be potentially easier and arguably more stable over the first year or so, yet some reefers site the sand bed as the cause of "Old Tank Syndrome" when your tank is in the 3-10 year range.

But typically when reefers have a sand bed and they decide to go sandless, they syphon the sand out very slowly over time. This minimizes any potential ammonia spikes or releasing a pocket of hydrogen sulfide.

Too artifial looking for me. It has too look like a reef. Otherwise might as well keep goldfish

I used to think this too, for like 30 years or more lol! But it was recently pointed out to me that if you dive in the ocean reefs (and I don't at all) you will see huge rock formations with large, growing corals. This happens down to like 50 or 60 feet of water or greater. You have to go down to the very, very bottom of the reefs to see sand. Otherwise, it's really just rocks and corals. So does a "real" reef tank necessarily need sand? I'm sincere just asking, it's a great question

I'm not an expert, I'm just talking here, but......

I recently saw where someone raised more or less a very similar question in a thread about what was the *best* photograph of a reef tank, and those Photo Of The Month guys play for keeps; you know who you are lol!

The suggestion was that if a reef tank can't be a reef tank because it unnaturally doesn't have sand, how can we call a tank that has corals and other animals from all over the world, and from different ranges, a true "reef tank"?

It could be argued that a true "reef tank" should be a representation of a reef, but what is a "reef tank" if we are going to pack non native animals altogether just because they can coexist? This seems to me much more like an "aquarium" and not a "mini-reef", which used to be the old term back in the day

What do you guys think? I'd sincerely like to know

 

[VintageReefer]

If you have detritus build up, you’re doing something wrong

This sandbed ranges from 3-4” and is 11 years old. It’s never been manually stirred or cleaned

 

[klc]

If you've only got an inch of sand and your tank is only 8 months old it doesn't matter what you do with it, leave it in or take it out it won't change anything. And the hydrogen sulfide thing would only apply to 3" or more of deep oolitic sand, and if you maintained such a sand bed you wouldn't typically disturb it anyways.

Going sandless makes it easy to run your algae magnet along the bottom for sure.

 

[Viking_Reefing]

I've seen some people attempt to go bare bottom, but most of them ended up adding sand later on because they struggled to maintain proper biological filtration. If you already have a sand bed, I think removing it would be devastating to the current stability of your tank unless you have planned other means of achieving the same levels of nutrient breakdown.

I can see that happening if you do something stupid like ripping it out all at once but provided you do it over months, and perhaps compensate with something else with a lot of surface area, I can’t see why this would be the case.

I’m in the process of removing my sand bed. I do love the look of sand but only when it’s pristinely white. That does require a fair bit of effort to maintain so to reduce maintenance tasks I’m going to give bare bottom a go…I do think bare bottoms look like crap but hopefully I’ll get used to it. And hey, if I can’t I can always put the sand back in.

I’m removing about 15% weekly and going to compensate the loss of surface area by adding more rock to my sump.

 

[Fish Fan]

If you have detritus build up, you’re doing something wrong

This sandbed ranges from 3-4” and is 11 years old. It’s never been manually stirred or cleaned

Nice work, as always, VR!

 

[Fish Fan]

If you've only got an inch of sand and your tank is only 8 months old it doesn't matter what you do with it, leave it in or take it out it won't change anything. And the hydrogen sulfide thing would only apply to 3" or more of deep oolitic sand, and if you maintained such a sand bed you wouldn't typically disturb it anyways.

Welcome to the conversation!

I'm going to disagree on the hydrogen sulfide "thing", I'd suggest removing your existing sand bed slowly.

Going sandless makes it easy to run your algae magnet along the bottom for sure.

Yes! This is what I've read

 

[VintageReefer]

I do believe my deeper sand bed is part of my tanks success and my more natural, low maintenance regime

Years ago. Many years ago. When I was “novice reefer” and not “vintage reefer” I had a 6-7” dsb and my tank did great, for about 6 years then rapidly bombed. Looking back I had old tank syndrome screaming at me. But I was too new to recognize it. This was during the end of the dsb fad.

My next tank used a 2” sand bed but needed more work from my end in all areas and while successful, it was a lot

This tank I setup about 12-13 years a ago, and after 3 I broke it down to move, and set it back up when I arrived. The sandbed I left in place with 1” of water over it. 10.5 years ago it was put in its current place, filled with water, my original rock, and the tank was restarted.

I have go through a few types of setups, sps, mixed reef, and a period of 2 years of neglect, before rebuilding it to its current state, which is my favorite by far. The things that have remained the same over the last 10 years - the sandbed, rock, and water.

It started as 3.5” sandbed but from currents and critters and fish, it’s now 3” on the left side and the far right varies from 4-4.5”

The sand is fine grain, and is bright white, but a lot of the surface has grown purple coraline specs.

I have 10 nassarius and 1 fighting conch and they keep it stirred and clean. The conch was a game changer. He does the work of 20 nassarius. Maybe more. All he does all day is clean sand.

 

[klc]

Welcome to the conversation!

I'm going to disagree on the hydrogen sulfide "thing", I'd suggest removing your existing sand bed slowly.


Yes! This is what I've read

Why would you remove it slowly? Use a siphon hose and siphon the sand into a bucket and be done with it. What makes you think there's hydrogen sulfide in an 8 month old 1" deep sand bed? That's not deep enough to go anaerobic. This isn't my first rodeo.

Even it if was a deep oolitic bed, siphoning it out slowly or all at once makes no difference, I've never done it slowly and it has never mattered.

Again, what is the reasoning behind removing it slowly over time?

 

[VintageReefer]

I have a mp40 and mp10 in a standard 75g reef. I can turn these both up 100% - beyond any realistic amount of flow anyone would use and I don’t get sand storms. The sand is zero maintenance if you get a decent clean up crew (and fighting conch! ) and have pumps setup creating opposing gyres.

For me,
The left side is clockwise and the right side is counter clockwise. The pumps pull water towards them and up to them

I question the logic to remove sand and I question when people say it’s too much maintenance. If you have issues with sand you likely will have the same issues, or different ones, when you remove it

Right side

Left side

 

[Fish Fan]

Why would you remove it slowly? Use a siphon hose and siphon the sand into a bucket and be done with it. What makes you think there's hydrogen sulfide in an 8 month old 1" deep sand bed? That's not deep enough to go anaerobic. This isn't my first rodeo.

Even it if was a deep oolitic bed, siphoning it out slowly or all at once makes no difference, I've never done it slowly and it has never mattered.

Again, what is the reasoning behind removing it slowly over time?

I would listen to @VintageReefer's advice; I like his approach and results.

But if you are going to remove your sand bed, the general advice is to do it slowly. Even if you don't have pockets of hydrogen sulfide, your sand bed is a huge, huge part of the biofilter in your tank. In my opinion, sand has even more "real estate" and contains more nitrifying bacteria than rock. If you remove your sand bed all at once, you may potentially cripple the biofilter in your tank. That's the reason most people advise removing it slowly.

In fact, most would advise that making ANY change to your tank should be done very slowly.

Good luck!

 

[NoobishReefer22]

This is a very good reply, but I do disagree somewhat

Many report that a sandless tank is the easiest tank they've maintained, in the very long term. Certainly, your milage may vary.

A tank with sand is said to be potentially easier and arguably more stable over the first year or so, yet some reefers site the sand bed as the cause of "Old Tank Syndrome" when your tank is in the 3-10 year range.

But typically when reefers have a sand bed and they decide to go sandless, they syphon the sand out very slowly over time. This minimizes any potential ammonia spikes or releasing a pocket of hydrogen sulfide.


I used to think this too, for like 30 years or more lol! But it was recently pointed out to me that if you dive in the ocean reefs (and I don't at all) you will see huge rock formations with large, growing corals. This happens down to like 50 or 60 feet of water or greater. You have to go down to the very, very bottom of the reefs to see sand. Otherwise, it's really just rocks and corals. So does a "real" reef tank necessarily need sand? I'm sincere just asking, it's a great question

I'm not an expert, I'm just talking here, but......

I recently saw where someone raised more or less a very similar question in a thread about what was the *best* photograph of a reef tank, and those Photo Of The Month guys play for keeps; you know who you are lol!

The suggestion was that if a reef tank can't be a reef tank because it unnaturally doesn't have sand, how can we call a tank that has corals and other animals from all over the world, and from different ranges, a true "reef tank"?

It could be argued that a true "reef tank" should be a representation of a reef, but what is a "reef tank" if we are going to pack non native animals altogether just because they can coexist? This seems to me much more like an "aquarium" and not a "mini-reef", which used to be the old term back in the day

What do you guys think? I'd sincerely like to know

I saw the exact same video as you where someone pointed out that if you dive in the ocean you don't see any sand in the coral reefs until you get a little deeper which is part of my motivation for going bare bottom as well. I personally think a reef tank is whatever you want it to be as long as you treat your pets well! But I am pretty new to the hobby haha.

 

[NoobishReefer22]

I have a mp40 and mp10 in a standard 75g reef. I can turn these both up 100% - beyond any realistic amount of flow anyone would use and I don’t get sand storms. The sand is zero maintenance if you get a decent clean up crew (and fighting conch! ) and have pumps setup creating opposing gyres.

For me,
The left side is clockwise and the right side is counter clockwise. The pumps pull water towards them and up to them

I question the logic to remove sand and I question when people say it’s too much maintenance. If you have issues with sand you likely will have the same issues, or different ones, when you remove it

Right side

Left side

Great points but I am pretty sure I could fix this in many ways to be honest. But a lot of my reasoning for getting rid of my sand bed is also personal preference. I think bare bottom looks better and once I add slowly remove all my sand I will be adding in additional flow as well as sucking out detritus is a lot easier in bare bottoms as well.

 

[exnisstech]

I removed the 3-4" sand bed from my 180g a few years back with no ill effects. I just vacuumed it out a section at a time when doing water changes. I run 3 tanks now all barebottom. I like the look of a clean sandbed but I've never been able to keep sand looking clean. I did end up sectioning off one end and adding sand back in that area for a derasa clam.

 

[MrGisonni]

I've been running bare bottom reefs for decades. My latest reef has a piece of beige acrylic siliconed to the bottom for a more natural look. I do have lots of rock for biological filtration though.