Sand bed or no sand bed

[Hinds04]

im not supporting a bare bottom tank. I think they look terrible but every surface in the tank will have the good bacteria including the glass, sides and bottom... the sand may have more but its nothing thats gonna make or break a tank.

I know of many many tanks with great flow and sugar sized sand with no problems. If your worried about it go with crushed coral and manually agitate it once a week

 

[Hinds04]

Go sand bed or bare because you like the look of one to the other. I wouldn’t dig any deeper than that.

 

[slitherbomb]

Exactly, it's all on looks. I like the more natural look so I prefer sand.

 

[Feelthereefer]

I really like the sand as well but at the same time if its going to be red and not white I would prefer bare bottom... I will see how the next couple days go and keep this thread updated I did a 20 gallon pwc today and sucked out all red sand in the process so lets see how it goes I do 20 more gallons tuesday..

 

[huma-huma]

Im pretty sure a solid day or two of no lights will do the trick. Granted the fish will be confused as all but it'll take care of it. Id do everything but dose, that should be an absolute last resort. Sometimes its also easier just to ride it out. My tank went thru an excess algae stage for 2 weeks, now its clearing up

 

[Hinds04]

Everyone struggles with stages of "bad algae" for the first 6 months or so. I would say make sure you only have your daylights on for 8 or so hours a day and no dead spots in your tank. You can also feed as little as every other day for a while. If you do this with proper water changing it will be completely gone in a couple weeks.

I went through a stage of hair algae that was choking out corals, I did this stuff and noticed a big difference in a week.