I personally do not like deep sand beds only because I dont like maintaining them. Although I am not an expert at them, I have an understanding on how and why they work. I would definately reccomend a sand bed for a newbie, it gives more room for error. I am not saying that I am super advanced, but I do know how to keep my water clean. Gary, on your first post you said what I needed to hear. I am not looking for a deep sand bed to help with the nitrifying bacteria, I will have other methods of filtration to help me with that.

THunderkat, can you tell me how a deep sand bed will help with the excessive coraline growth. I was not aware of this, my barebotton nano was full of it in about a week, I seeded it of course with some coraline spores and I used some water from my established tank. I just dont know how it will help it grow. Gary, where you aware of this too?