Bare bottom or not to bare bottom??

[120reefkeeper]

So I’ve always run sand in all of my tanks over the years. With this build I’ve considered the idea of running a bare bottom tank for the first time. Give me pros and cons of both ! Oh and don’t forget to vote!!

 

[Crabs McJones]

I thought about it to, when I switched from my undrilled tank to my drilled tank. I ended up doing sand and I'm glad I did. My biggest concern was sand provides a little stability for the rock work. On bare bottom I felt that the rocks had more moveability to rock and tilt. I went with the Fiji pink sand mixed with Fiji white sand, and it looks really good

 

[Servillius]

I’ve always gone bare bottom. What I’m slowly learning is that if you do an effective job filtering your tank and have a clean up crew, sand is not a problem. It’s actually cleaner than bare bottom.

If you don’t do a good job filtering the sand can be a mess. But lots of other things will be too. Focus on filtration.

 

[AlexStinson]

I am torn, I sucked out all my sand about 6 months ago, and it made a huge positive difference in my tank. I originally had about 2ish inches of sugar fine sand and it seemed to have hardened in many places and trapped nutrients. So I feel i may have just been using too small of a sand for it to be easy to clean. I definately prefer the look of sand, although my bottom is slowly becoming fully encrusted with montis/coralline. I also like that I can now run my vortechs on full power.

 

[nautical_nathaniel]

I think in smaller tanks, sand is a huge benefit. In larger tanks it may be harder to get to and could develop dead zones or areas that are prone to algae development. That being said all of my tanks will have sand in them and I will design the aquascape in my future big tank to make it easy to access the sand bed all over the tank for proper siphon cleaning.

 

[dutch27]

This is one thing people generally can't agree on. I went bare bottom in my current tank, a 40B without a sump, and I'm not sure I'd ever do sand again. I can't say I've seen any difference in the tanks ability to handle nutrients without sand, but I am able to easily siphon out the piles of detritus. Unless you're doing a true DSB, it's a matter of what you find more visually appealing, or if you want to keep things that need a substrate. The only thing I miss about sand is the ability to get a frag and just plant the plug into the sand.

 

[WWIII]

I agree with @crabs_mcjones , the sand, imo, provides a little stability/cushion for the rockwork. Plus I like the looks of it! I have used tropic eden on my last 2 tanks at around 1 inch of depth and been very happy with it.

I actually put eggcrate down first on my newest tank (40 breeder) then put 1 inch of sand down. This is the best setup I have personally run, it makes me feel very comfortable with aquascaping and moving stuff around if need be. I was too chicken to put the eggcrate in my 200, for fear of possible leaching and/or breaking down, but if I had it to do again I would strongly consider it.

Having 1 to 1.5" of sand to my eyes looks great, it's easy to keep clean, and keeps some sand dwelling critters happy!

 

[g5flier]

I have two tanks, a RedSea 525 which has about 1.0" of sand and a WaterBox 75.2 that I went bare bottom. I went bare bottom for ease of maintenance, its a breeze to siphon off weekly and looks amazing. I love the sand in my larger tank but lets face it, its more work. I'd say bare bottom covered with Coralline, Montipora and zoas beats sand unless you want to keep things that need sand.

 

[ChrisOFL]

I'm a big fan of deep sand beds because of all the awesome microfauna it provides. I feel like now that mine has become established I can feed as much as I like and my nutrients always stay in check. My DSB has been going for 2 years now and the only cleaning I do for it is passing the suction hose over the surface without touching it to pickup any extra detritus I see during water changes. DSB do limit you on some livestock you can keep because you don't want anything that actively hunts microfauna in the sandbed. You also must used sugar grain sand so it costs a little more to establish as well.

I would add that barebottoms look great with coral encrusting over them. I really considered doing that on this tank but I had a lobster at the time and required a sand bed. Either choice can work but I think my DSB has paid off in the long run as my only other filter is a protein skimmer and refugium. I use carbon for 24 hours after each water change as well.

 

[Crabs McJones]

I'm a big fan of deep sand beds because of all the awesome microfauna it provides. I feel like now that mine has become established I can feed as much as I like and my nutrients always stay in check. My DSB has been going for 2 years now and the only cleaning I do for it is passing the suction hose over the surface without touching it to pickup any extra detritus I see during water changes. DSB do limit you on some livestock you can keep because you don't want anything that actively hunts microfauna in the sandbed. You also must used sugar grain sand so it costs a little more to establish as well.

I would add that barebottoms look great with coral encrusting over them. I really considered doing that on this tank but I had a lobster at the time and required a sand bed. Either choice can work but I think my DSB has paid off in the long run as my only other filter is a protein skimmer and refugium. I use carbon for 24 hours after each water change as well.

This display tank at the liveaquaria facility is the one reason I considered bare bottom, its absolutely gorgeous!

 

[Zagreus]

For me if I could commit to not putting any corals or mushrooms on the sand i would keep a sand gravel substrait along with my sand sleeping wrasses and a diamond goby to keep it clean.

 

[skiergd011013]

ive had both, and currently BB. I will never, ever run sand again. I remember battling flow and sand storms. Also cyano that inevitably pops up on sand at some point. This tank is literally 75% less work to maintain. I have way less problems and algae, and can do whatever I want with flow. During water changes, I know where the flow brings the detritus, and I can just suck it out. You can also grow gsp, shrooms, or any other coral on the bottom, if you dont like the bare look. I love it.

 

[DSC reef]

I vote bare bottom. I don't think I'll ever go back to sand again. Easy maintenance, love the corals growing on the bottom too.

 

[ChrisOFL]

This display tank at the liveaquaria facility is the one reason I considered bare bottom, its absolutely gorgeous!

Wow that is indeed a very nice tank. The one at WWC is what made me think about doing it. Sometimes their encrusting corals start climbing the front glass they grow so well.

 

[S-t-r-e-t-c-h]

There really is no right answer to this question, which is why it's always so hotly contested.

Sand positives:
- appearance (subjective)
- greater microfauna biodiversity (subjective)
- some fish & inverts require sand (objective)
- more light reflection, as long as the sand is white (objective)
- greater LR stability (objective)

Bare bottom positives:
- appearance (subjective)
- lower nutrient (objective)
- doesn't blow around (objective)

There's no doubt that bare bottom tanks are just easier to manage. No worrying about sand storms, so you can crank the flow to 11. No concern about nutrient build up or additional cleaning. You can even largely get around light reflection and add some protection to the bottom panel with white starboard or acrylic sheet.

For myself, I'll have a hard time going bare bottom. I just like the visuals of a sand bottom and find watching critters in the sand immensely entertaining. I also have some fish in mind for my next tanks that will pretty much necessitate sand.

The allure of the bb is strong though, for sure...

 

[120reefkeeper]

Wow! Great comments so far! I’ve seen some great ideas here! It’s a tough decision! If it helps at all , this will not be an Sps dominant system. It may have a few less demanding SPS. They really are both great options!

If I go with sand I’ve considered Tropic Eden Grand Select along with Tropic Eden Reef flakes.


If not then it’s all bare bottom.

 

[ChrisOFL]

Wow! Great comments so far! I’ve seen some great ideas here! It’s a tough decision! If it helps at all , this will not be an Sps dominant system. It may have a few less demanding SPS. They really are both great options!

If I go with sand I’ve considered Tropic Eden Grand Select along with Tropic Eden Reef flakes.


If not then it’s all bare bottom.

Take a look Nature's Ocean sand products. IMO they have a better variety and their sand grains come in more consistent sizes. They also have sand grain smaller than 1mm which is what I used for 3/4 of the sand with oolite and substrate mixed in. I have my pumps all on 100% without any sandstorm issues (RW-8 and RW-4 on 100% and return pump around 500gph). I've been adding Ocean Direct live oolite, you inevitably suck up some sand over the years, and it is also a very good 1-2mm sand grain consistency.

 

[drawman]

There really is no right answer to this question, which is why it's always so hotly contested.

Sand positives:
- appearance (subjective)
- greater microfauna biodiversity (subjective)
- some fish & inverts require sand (objective)
- more light reflection, as long as the sand is white (objective)
- greater LR stability (objective)

Bare bottom positives:
- appearance (subjective)
- lower nutrient (objective)
- doesn't blow around (objective)

There's no doubt that bare bottom tanks are just easier to manage. No worrying about sand storms, so you can crank the flow to 11. No concern about nutrient build up or additional cleaning. You can even largely get around light reflection and add some protection to the bottom panel with white starboard or acrylic sheet.

For myself, I'll have a hard time going bare bottom. I just like the visuals of a sand bottom and find watching critters in the sand immensely entertaining. I also have some fish in mind for my next tanks that will pretty much necessitate sand.

The allure of the bb is strong though, for sure...

Very well written. I run both of my tanks bare bottom since I do not have any sand burrowing wrasses. It makes the tanks easier to manage IMO. With very good flow detritus doesn't have much of a place to settle.

 

[Shep]

Went bare bottom for my current tank and love the look plus its so easy to clean!

 

[revhtree Verified Admin]

I like the look of sand. I hate the look of dirty sand. I did a trial temporarily when I was waiting to put up my new tank and was BB on my old tank. It still got pretty dirty if you didn't keep it clean like sand. So that said I would rather work to keep sand clean than a barebottom.