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Post by BriMc on Jan 4, 2015 13:02:06 GMT -5
Hi Everyone,
Dropping in to say Hi and hoping everybody had a Merry Christmas, a Happy New Year, and / or Happy Holiday's. I have not been on in a bit as some of you have heard I lost the majority of my tank inhabitants due tp a three day power failure. Losing the tank has motivated me to ramp up getting the new tank finished and stop procrastinating. My question is the age old debate about having a deep sand bed in my display tank or putting a 40 gallon tank seperate with a remote DSB and refugium. I am thinking about running a 2" sand bed in the display tank and a 5" sand bed in the remote 40 gallon. What are your thoughts, pro's and con's. I have been pro DSB in the display tank for my 25 years in reefing but I may be swaying to change my ways and run something different.
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Post by gotareef on Jan 4, 2015 13:52:25 GMT -5
my thoughts- the benefit of a remote sand bed is there isnt light on it, light on the sand bed causes algae and other issues that can cause allot of problems in the dsb... another thing with remote sand bed if you used a couple 5g buckets plumbed together they can be sealed so you never have to worry about overflows and you can replace sections of the deep sand bed regularly(every year or two) I would also run about 1" of sand max in the display so you dont get buildups of crap that can leach po4/nitrates... 2" is the "DANGER ZONE" and will require allot of maintenance
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Post by jasonandsarah on Jan 4, 2015 20:42:43 GMT -5
Remote sand bed sounds awesome to me. I love the look of a sand bed in a reef tank but my next tank will be bare bottom.
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Post by maineultraclassic on Jan 5, 2015 7:53:38 GMT -5
2" sandbed in the display is fine, that's about what I always run. It's enough to keep the rocks stable, and keep the bottom covered.
A remote DSB would be good, and it would be easier to clean if needed too.
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Post by fermentedhiker on Jan 5, 2015 20:52:16 GMT -5
Unless you have something like a jawfish that likes it deep I would go for a remote one. Also if you're doing a remote one since it won't be visible you can skip using aragonite and just use Pool filter sand which is a lot cheaper and since it's not calcium carbonate based it won't become a phosphate sink.
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Post by BriMc on Jan 7, 2015 11:54:17 GMT -5
The reason I am going two inches of sand in the main tank is to support a jaw fish if I decide to get one as well as all the worms and snails associated with a DSB.
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Post by gotareef on Jan 7, 2015 12:38:55 GMT -5
an option I have though about with my tank for a jawfish, would be to have a screen basket with 2-3" of sand. the benefit I see is you dont have to worry about rock crashing from them moving sand and because jawfish like to hide allot you would always know where it was the downside is how to aquascape the tank to make a basket of sand look nice and almost natural....
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