Live sand?

I crossed a youtube video which talk about the live sand can take care of Nitrate problem.
Is that true ?
How does it work?

Could anyone help me out ?

live sand is full of good bacteria that eats stuff like that but if your goin thru a cycle with a new tank then your just goin to have all kinds of funky stuff goin on

Just my personal opinion but I would not run over 3/4" sandbed in a reef tank. In order to reduce nitrates the sandbed would have to be several inches deep. Nitrate eating bacteria require very low oxygen concentrations to live such as the deep pores in live rock for instance. In the liverock though there is a constant action taking place with the different bacteria in close proximity to each other. In the deep sand bed these areas can also produce hydrogen sulfide and other toxic substances that over time will without a doubt be released back into the aquarium. over my forty or so years of reef tanks I have ran deep sand beds as well as plenum systems and they work fine for 18 month's to two years but then out of the blue everything starts going crazy and the tank crashes, in my opinion this all goes back to the deep sand bed. Its like any other filter, it can only hold and filter so much then it crashes. My advise would be to add more liverock to take care of nitrates and go with only a thin sand bed for looks.

+1 to donnie, also it may be more cost effective to start out with dry sand and then go to an established tank and get a cup of the old sand from there to seed your tank.


DSB = future problems , imo

Does Live Rock handle Nitrate?
From what I read that the LR produce Nitrate???
Sorry I am confused there.

taimoortwm wrote:Does Live Rock handle Nitrate?
From what I read that the LR produce Nitrate???
Sorry I am confused there.

Under normal aquarium conditions nitrates accumulate as they cannot be converted into anything else. However in certain conditions nitrates can be broken down by bacteria to produce nitrogen gas. This is not an easy step, requiring extremely low oxygen levels, and to survive the bacteria remove the oxygen from nitrates. This is essentially how nitrate filters work, creating an enclosed anaerobic environment where the process takes place. It also occurs at the heart of every piece of live rock. So yes liverock removes nitrates, it only contributes to nitrates if you keep poluting the tank to the extent that the liverock can not handle the load. On my 28g nano I use liverock as the main filter and my nitrates never even show on the tests. I use no skimmer and only other filter media is Chemipure elite and Chaeto. If you constantly run high nitrates, add more liverock and feed less and by all means use ro-di water!

Thanks a lot . I really learned some good stuff!!!