Anyone sandless

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Actually at the moment I have a 55 in transition with several fish and rocks, bare-bottom.
 
I have a bb tank althouh I do have a handful of sand in there some guppy grass floating around and a little java moss on the bottom. Why do you ask? I really dig the look.
 
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I'm running a reef tank (or trying) and I keep getting algae in my crushed coral. I'm thinking about pulling it all out and leaving it bare.
 
I'm running a reef tank (or trying) and I keep getting algae in my crushed coral. I'm thinking about pulling it all out and leaving it bare.

Crushed coral is notorious for algae growth. I would personally try to switch to a different substrate grain size. I would go with either special grade reef sand or Fiji pink. Either of those should take care of your problem.

Bare bottom is easier to clean but imho its just ugly.
 
Yeah, I live near Anna Marie Island, and whenever I go I just sit there and dream of filling up a couple 5 gallon buckets of that beautiful white sand :)
 
I had fine Caribbean sand but had an hair algea and red slime algae problem after my cycle. It was recommended by my lfs to remove the substrate and let the algae die off. It worked and I put the sand back after awhile. No algea came back. But my snail and invert waste was visible and ugly with no substrate. I am now having the same problem since I upgraded to a 40g breeder. But I refuse to remove my sand. I have bought many hermits and more snails along with a sand sifting starfish for a clean up crew. It is now controlling the growth once I get my sump/refuge up and running I believe my problem will go away.
 
I also think my bulbs need changing. I think they can also help promote unwanted algae growth if they are out of spectrum. I think they are over a year old.
 
Yeah I believe a rule of thumb is 8-10 months probably ready for a bulb change. Your corals will appreciate it.
 
Been awhile will. Sorry to hear about your crushed coral bottom. Tbh, I'd remove it and slowly add a sandy bottom to it.

For reef tanks, you'll see sps dominated tanks with bare bottoms. They won't really see the junk gathering on the bottom like listed above because of the high flow needed for sps coral. The strong flow will keep all the poop in the water column until it can be filtered out by whatever means you have on the system.
 
Been awhile will. Sorry to hear about your crushed coral bottom. Tbh, I'd remove it and slowly add a sandy bottom to it. For reef tanks, you'll see sps dominated tanks with bare bottoms. They won't really see the junk gathering on the bottom like listed above because of the high flow needed for sps coral. The strong flow will keep all the poop in the water column until it can be filtered out by whatever means you have on the system.
Yeah I think I'm gonna pull it this weekend. It'll take a few weeks to get two new bulbs @ 41.00 a piece. Then I'll work on the sand. Gotta figure out what it's gonna cost me to buy the sand gotta figure out how much a bag covers.
 
What is a decent sugar sized sand? According to one online calculator I need 137 lbs of sand. Or about 13 gallons. My tank is 60x18 glass is 3/8 thick.
 
Pool filter sand will work. I used the CaribSea sand in both my tanks and like it. My next tank might be a different sand to change it up, get a different color in there.
 
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