Perfect sand bed question?

[dentdominator]

What is the perfect sand bed?

I'm in the middle of a total break down and I will be adding sand to the display tank.

What is a good size sand bed as far as INCHES for a 210 gallon reef ready tank?

What is not enough and what would be to much?

I have 3 bags 40 pound bags of Seafloor special grade reef sand and 1- 40 pound bag of fiji pink.

Debating about mixing it all together or just using the 3 bags of reef sand.

[jojo22]

I would hit at least 3 inches to get the de-nitrification qualities of a DSB, but I'm sure you will probably get answers ranging from 2-5 inches depending on who you talk to.

[schminksbro]

I would say either 1" for looks or a minimum of 4" for a functioning filter.

[EQCM2B]

I agree with the 1 inch for looks or 4 or more for DSB function.

[dentdominator]

I appreciate all the input, I'm just afraid a DSB could cause a nitrate trap down the road.

I'm leaning more towards a 1.5" sand bed for looks.

I will be using Brightwell products right from the beginning. Hopefully that will get the system off to a good start.

Thanks and keep some more answers coming.

[Sir Patrick]

I would have to say just enough sand to cover the bottom and deal with the flow in your tank at the same time. Would hate to see bare bottom in a sandbed tank because it bets blown bare by the flow from your closed loop/powerheads/pumps. This is where it gets pretty hard to determine how deep you should go....

You still running the closed loop and flow pumps on this tank as the last?

[schminksbro]

A deep sand bed is not recommended with a probiotics system. Therefore your 1 1/2" will be fine.

[dentdominator]

A deep sand bed is not recommended with a probiotics system. Therefore your 1 1/2" will be fine.

Fantastic !! - Thanks

I'm looking forward towards a probiotic system this time around.

I'm going to upgrade the skimmer from a ETSS 800 to a ETSS 1400 - this monster should do it !!

Thanks for all the input so far.

Dent