Substrate in a reef tank help.

Hey guys,just wanting some advice on the use of a deep sand bed again.
I have read liquids opinion on them with sulphur production, what do you mean by that?
It’s so hard as there are many that say a deep sand bed works very well.

Its not that simple,I just say sulphur because many years back the waters tested sulpur positive in the old deep sand beds,its actualy a gas heavier than air, called hydrogen sulfide.

You combine this with oxygen and it is combustable,on its own it is a reducing agent,so it is quite toxic!

The worst thing about this let loose by disturbing the deep sand bed,plus it leaches out any way slowly poisoning the aquariums life forms,is it acts as a weak acid,so there goes your PH at small amounts during lights out later down the track,plus what a crash this substance will cause if exposed in a large amount,your PH will trun the water to acid as far as your fish are concerned.

It must be said that a good sized cascaded waters area and an extensive algae area will nutralise this potential problem completely!!

I call it sulfur because if it is set alight once combined with oxygen you get sulfur dioxide and if combined with other substances,you get elemental sulfur!

We see and smell it’s affects at collection sites at low tide trips a great deal,it’s the stuff that makes the grey/black staining of corals and shells under the surface of the mud/sand and it stinks,the same as sewerage sought of.

The smell is silimar to rotten egg gas from back in high school,yukk!

If you have a deep sand bed with out serious pre filtering before it,this bed will become a grave for your aquarium creatures,it will creep up little by little and make the need for more and more spending,unless you give up as the corals bleach and the ich runs rampant on regular intervals,but this is mostly just often enough to not completely make you give up,well not straight away,lol,that’s where the shops make some more money off you.

But hey,the shops have to sell to survive!

Someone should put him onto Dave, we all know how much Dave loves DSB's