Bare bottom or not?

[The Guy]

Originally Posted by FitoPharmer

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.

[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.