Deep Sand/Gravel Bed

[umfalcon]

Can anyone point me to some resources regarding deep sand beds? I have watched Cory's videos where he visits Ocean Aquarium and mentions deep sand beds, but I was hoping to check out some resources that give additional information. Also, for the process to work, does it have to ONLY be a deep sand bed, or can a deep gravel bed work as well?

[Sarina]

Here is a video from @Bentley Pascoe that explains how anoxic and anaerobic bacteria works, including some other links that explains it further. As for your question about gravel, in order to create a deep enough bed to create an anaerobic environment, you'd have to have pretty deep gravel and quite a bit of mulm. Sand tends to compact and create that anaerobic and anoxic environment better and more consistently than gravel. 

[Biotope Biologist]

We also have had a lengthy discussion of it in this topic post as well where some more resources exist and a rather lengthy post by several of us have cleared up some of the myths about it:

I have had quite a bit of experience in this topic and had to write about it in college some. Currently I am growing out some red mangroves in an anoxic environment for a brackish biotope project that will include heavy water parameter shifts which is very poorly documented on the internet and usually reserved for aquariums that have the luxury of being able to pump in/out seawater. Let me know if you have any further questions or if there is anything you are specifically curious about in these environments.