Bare bottom or not?

[MarkoD]

I've read a thousand threads on the subject and still can't decide.

I don't like the look of bare bottom but don't like the problems that sand causes when it traps neutriants.

Has anyone here been able to find a best of both worlds?

I've seen some people epoxy sand to the bottom, but after a whole it gets covered with algae and it looks like crap.

[Seriak]

I ended up going with just enough sand to cover the bottom of the tank. I wanted more of a natural look. I find bare bottom tanks more of that ultra clean sanitized look which is not what I was going for with my DT.

[cyberdude47]

I have mostly bare with just enough sand in the front I the rock just to give the impression of a sand bed

[christyf5]

I tried having a bit of sand with BB, didn't work for me as it blew all over the place. Eventually I gave up and siphoned it all out. Now I have a good sized patch of ricordia that are taking over and I quite like the look of it, its only at about 25-30% of the front side of the tank but looks pretty good. I was never successful with a sandbed so BB has been my only option.

[Aquattro]

Ideally for a SPS tank, BB is best, but I also really wanted more of an overall reef display, so i used about an inch of sand. It's completely blown out around the front, and the back areas are good, but covered in broken frags, snail shells, etc, that I can't reach, and it kinda looks like crap. Not sure I wouldn't do it again, but I used eggcrate under everything and can't siphon it out now.

[MarkoD]

What about covering the bottom in flat shelf pieces of rock? So it looks like a rocky bottom.

Has anyone ever done that?

[Jeff000]

Bare bottom ruins the look of a tank.
There are lots of tanks that run and look great with sand. Get the proper clean up crew and the sand can help you.

[Royal Aquariums]

Bare bottom tanks can be beautiful, especially once you have enough coral growth to start covering some of the bottom up. I personally just siphoned most of my sand out in my home DT this past weekend, going to give a BB a try.

[SeaHorse_Fanatic]

Went BB for 6 months but wife & I hated the look so added sand and that's what I've always done since. Not an SPS heavy tank though, mainly LPS.

[Delphinus]

I just go with just enough sand to cover the glass and I figure I can always siphon it out and replace it down the road if it starts to be a problem. It does shift around a bit in the current, so I have to relevel it every few months or so. I have a diamond goby who is constantly sifting the sand keeping it clean (best idea ever, I have one large guy in my 280g, he's a total workhorse.) There are a few other sand sifting gobies but be wary that some might scoop and then swim up before spitting the sand out, which will drive you crazy if you don't like sand on your rocks and corals. Diamond gobies OTOH just spit it out at the bottom, so you don't get the clouds of sand with that particular species.

I've done BB and I thought it would grow on me, but it never did. The thing you have to consider with BB is that it's really done out of convenience for cleaning up crud accumulation, and you would be surprised just how much crud can come out of nowhere. The live rock itself is pooping dirty sand. For this reason, a tank bottom covered in flat rock isn't the same thing as BB because you'd still have to vaccuum out in all the crevasses and underneath and stuff.

[reefwars]

i find bb tanks harder to keep clean then sandbeds.....

[FitoPharmer]

I found unsealed travertine tiles looked and did the best for my bare bottom tanks. They quickly covered in coraline, and many corals seemed to grow faster on the travertine then on normal LR (though it was possibly my imagination). It also has the benefit of turning your entire bottom into a ready made frag rack of sorts with all the nooks and crannies that pods and sponges love.

[MarkoD]

Right now I have about an inch of sand/crushed coral mix.

I have over 200 hermit crabs and various snails and shrimp.
I have 4 mp40s all on full blast.

Junk still seems to settle. Should I be vacuuming the sand? Some say its good to vacuum, some say its bad to disturb the sand.

[don.ald]

Here's my bare bottom with encrusted corals
http://db.tt/mbfQhSL9
http://db.tt/s0ZkIGpG

[SeaHorse_Fanatic]

Cool but if you ever had to frag, I'd be terrified of breaking the bottom pane. Looks awesome though.

[Nano]

I hated the look of bare bottom tanks before I went bare bottom myself.
After I saw it I loved the look it grew on my very fast, and it encourages me to keep
Up on water changes too ;) poke.. poke.. jk but seriously, I find it does as you
siphon out crap weekly. Now that I have zoas and coraline spreading on it
it looks so nice. It's also a lot brighter I find but that could be more cause I
had black sand before.
probably not the answer your looking for but my opinion so far.
Hth.

[FitoPharmer]

Right now I have about an inch of sand/crushed coral mix.

I have over 200 hermit crabs and various snails and shrimp.
I have 4 mp40s all on full blast.

Junk still seems to settle. Should I be vacuuming the sand? Some say its good to vacuum, some say its bad to disturb the sand.
I have never owned a sand bed that did not cause the water to go milky and have sand fly everywhere from a siphoning mishap. Even after x20 washes. But I prefer the finer gain types. I found my sand always looked dirty until I owned a conch.

[Myka]

I prefer BB in SPS tanks, and sand in LPS/softie tanks.

My 90-gallon SPS tank is mostly BB. It went through stages. When I first set it up it had 1" sand in the middle and 3-4" on either end for Jawfish burrows. The sandbed actually stayed fairly clean (which isn't tough to do with a young-ish sandbed) and fish that are constantly digging. I used Fighting Conchs, Nassarius Snails, and Cerith Snails to keep the sand clean. I also gravel vacuumed it to its full depth on every waterchange since it was not setup as a functioning DSB. After the first couple years the Jawfish were moved out to another tank, one got eaten by a coral too, so I removed most of the sand. 12 months ago I siphoned out most of it, and just has a dusting now. It would be fully BB if I ever bothered to siphon the last bits of sand out. There is maybe 1/8" covering 1/4 of the bottom of the tank and it is mostly in the back.

The bottom glass is almost entirely covered in coralline, so I do not find it unsightly. Albeit the tank is viewed from a couch and the bottom isn't particularly visible anyway. Indeed a brand new, shiny bottom glass is rather ugly in my opinion, and it does take time to grow in, but you need to wait for the corals to grow in to make the rest of the tank look nice anyway! :lol: I have a wrasse in the tank, and he just slips in behind a small piece of rock that's on the bottom and sleeps between the rock and the glass.

Cleaning is no big deal, the small amount of detritus and other junk settles in two different spots. Occasionally when there is build up for some reason I just stick a rigid airline tube in the tank that has a piece of flexible airline tubing on it and siphon it out. The siphon has an "L" shape bent into it because one of the settle spots is under part of the rock structure, so the bend lets me siphon out from under there. It literally takes less than a minute to get the airline siphon, suck the gunk out, dump the little container, and put the siphon away. It takes less time than feeding the fish. :D

My 50-gallon LPS/Zoa tank has just under 1" of sand. I have a couple Fighting Conchs, some Cerith Snails, and some Nassarius Snails. They do a good job keep the sand clean. I also gravel vac the sand on every waterchange.

A properly maintained/functioning DSB should not be gravel vacuumed or disturbed. You can tell it is functioning properly if it does not need vacuuming! If it is not a properly maintained/functioning DSB then there is no point in having the sand any deeper than 1". If the sand is only 1" then there is no harm in siphoning the sand to its full depth. If the sand is deeper than 1" and it is not a properly functioning DSB then it is likely doing more harm than good as it gathers detritus and nutrients that can't be exported since the critters needed to do this are not in the sand (the DSB critters!).

So, in my opinion, for best results...

A) Maintain a 1" or less sandbed and gravel vacuum it regularly.
B) Maintain a BB tank.
C) Maintain a properly functioning and well stocked DSB and do not vacuum it, ever. Also be careful to not stock critters that will kill your DSB (like sand-sifting starfish or fish).

[The Guy]

I have never owned a sand bed that did not cause the water to go milky and have sand fly everywhere from a siphoning mishap. Even after x20 washes. But I prefer the finer gain types. I found my sand always looked dirty until I owned a conch.
I agree, I have a conch as well and he keeps the crushed coral bottom pretty clean. Also if I want to see a bare bottom tank I can go to Super- Store and look in their crab & lobster tanks or in my sump. BB looks far too sterile for a DT, IMO. :lol:

[albert_dao]

There's a super easy solution if you want to cover the bottom of your tank:

1. rock placement - learn from the FW guys. Look up Iwagumi.
2. coarse substrates - think Caribsea Florida Crush Coral or Special Grade Seaflor.
3. mega flow - 50x plus turnover per hour.
4. brittlestars and bristleworms - lots of them.

You should never have to gravel vac with this arrangement. I'm doing something like this and if you fluff up my sand bed, no detritus comes up, only fine aragonite particles.