No Sand In A Salt water Tank??

[novice]

can you have a salt water tank with no sand in it or do you need to have sand? its just i've been getting alot of algea in my salt water tank and it mostly effects the sand.
i've tried everything and even changed the sand but now the algea is back again.
does anyone have any suggestions please?

[Drumachine09]

What are your water parameters?

Welcome to the A.C.!

[cocoa_pleco]

i used crush coral and sand in my 10g saltwater.

Never thought about gravel. Gravel doesnt suit saltwater for me

[Glasstapper]

As long as you don't have any species that require sand (like most invertibrates), then you can have a bare bottom tank. Lots of people have bare bottoms in their fish only with live rock tanks.

[cocoa_pleco]

Yes, most delicate anenomies and stuff like starfish need sand, but fish like yellow tangs and clownfish and damsels dont necessarily need sand

[Fishguy2727]

What size tank? What fish?

[Fish Whisperer]

Novice-
Algae blooms in a new tank are part of the growing process. In established tanks, they are the result of poor water parameters (particularly nitrates)
Giving some more info would be beneficial to helping solve your problem.

Bare bottom tanks are common, and has absolutely no bearing on algae growth or lack thereof.

[old dirty picasso]

i recommend coral substrate rather than sand. and regular water changes.

[Fishguy2727]

Sand is a bit more natural. It is easier for burrowing animals to keep clean and it is small enough to keep too much stuff from collecting in it.

[luckie8]

Sorry if its a little off topic but how many lbs of sand do I need to setup a sandbed of 2-3" in a 40lb gal tank?
Should I go with Aragamax sand or Special grade reef sand for a FOWLR?

[2manyfish]

What size tank is this? What kind of algae are you getting? What fish, and inverts do you have? How much live rock do you have? When you do water changes how much and how often? What are your water parameters, ammonia, nitrite, nitrate, pH, calc, phosphate? Are you using tap water or RO water?

Just a quick little tip. If you are wanting to keep your sand then I would suggest aiming a powerhead to flow over the area of sand that is being affected. Most algaes don't like too much current. Make sure your calcium levels are high, this will promote the growth of coralline algae which will compete with the other algae. You might want to up your water change schedule if it is once a month or less. If you are using tap water then depending on your phosphate levels, you might need to switch over to RO water or at the very least use one of the many phosphate removing media that you can put in your filter.

In the past I've had several saltwater tanks, and I've had all the different substrates. Bare bottomed, deep sandbed, shallow sandbed, crushed coral. I have to admit that I wasn't too crazy about the bare bottomed, it just didn't look natural. The two different sandbeds each have their merit and some species of inverts and fish absolutely require sand, but (and again this is JMO), the crushed coral is the best of the bunch. The biggest benefit is that you can use your gravel vacuum on it. It can be cleaned out, turned over, etc. And despite what many think, small critters like copepods, small brittlestars, bristleworms, etc., will colonize it just fine. (Just try not to vacuum them up when cleaning!) But again, this will depend on what type of inverts and fish you have. Only some anemones require sand, most live on the rocks. Starfish don't require it unless they are the sand sifting stars. Wrasses must have sand to feel secure, as do sandsifting gobies, etc..

[novice]

ive seen a tank with no sand in it. but it still dont get past the problem of algae as 2 meny fish has said check every thing.water parameters ect but belive me taking out the sand will not sort out the algae it will still get on the bottom of your tank

[unleashed]

many people actually recommend sandless tanks. any detritus which settles on the bottom swiftly gets blown into the water column by the powerheads and removed by the filtration and coral (they love sandless tanks).

Algae will only be a problem in the beginning until your parameters settle down. Then coralline takes over and looks really nice