Deep sand bed or bare bottom???

Busa1340 · Dec 12, 2015

I've always used live sand but been seeing a lot of cool tanks with no sand. Question is which one? Pros cons of both? And if you go bare bottom are we putting rock right on glass? I've seen black and white bottoms is this some kind of pad protection?

Thunt4jr · Dec 12, 2015

I have done bare bottom with egg crate and live sands on many tanks. Mine was white egg crate and it turned purple. Love the looks of the purple colors. Bad thing about bare bottom is all the debris are on the bottom. Not everything can clean the corners inside the egg crate. Eventually they start breaking where the rocks sit on top of. I have had bare bottom for over a year then upgraded from 40 to 75 drilled. My wife wants sand bed. So HAPPY WIFE = HAPPY LIFE! Another con is, wife doesn't like bare bottom and she yells at me a lot about adding sands!

kv69 · Dec 12, 2015

Bare bottom for me, I can run lots of flow, easy to clean as well. Many people are using starboard in white or black, both are pretty cool. I will never run sand again, personally.

Busa1340 · Dec 12, 2015

kv69 said:
Bare bottom for me, I can run lots of flow, easy to clean as well. Many people are using starboard in white or black, both are pretty cool. I will never run sand again, personally.

Where can you get this starboard?

Busa1340 · Dec 12, 2015

Thunt4jr said:
I have done bare bottom with egg crate and live sands on many tanks. Mine was white egg crate and it turned purple. Love the looks of the purple colors. Bad thing about bare bottom is all the debris are on the bottom. Not everything can clean the corners inside the egg crate. Eventually they start breaking where the rocks sit on top of. I have had bare bottom for over a year then upgraded from 40 to 75 drilled. My wife wants sand bed. So HAPPY WIFE = HAPPY LIFE! Another con is, wife doesn't like bare bottom and she yells at me a lot about adding sands!

Happy wife happy life for sure! Lol my wife thinks I love my tank more than her.. I say it's equal love. Haha

kv69 · Dec 12, 2015

Busa1340 said:
Where can you get this starboard?

http://www.eplastics.com/Marine_Board-SEABOARD?gclid=CJ3unZPg1skCFcQkgQodTVgDtg

BetURWrasse · Dec 12, 2015

Honestly it comes down to preference. I started mine BB because I had an issue on the last tank with my gyres moving sand. I didn't like the look so I used reef flakes and now I couldn't be happier

AZDesertRat · Dec 12, 2015

Have had both over the years but prefer a fully functioning 5-6" deep sand bed. It's as much fun watching the diversity of the life in the sandbed as it is watching the fish and corals. Current 100G is 13 years old with 330 lbs of Southdown and going strong.

Busa1340 · Dec 12, 2015

AZDesertRat said:
Have had both over the years but prefer a fully functioning 5-6" deep sand bed. It's as much fun watching the diversity of the life in the sandbed as it is watching the fish and corals. Current 100G is 13 years old with 330 lbs of Southdown and going strong.

Yea I think I'm going to stay with a sand bed thanks for the info

brandon429 · Dec 12, 2015

It's pretty fun to get into ecohuffs over sb/no sb lol but so many successful systems exist there w never be a best way. My sb ranges 6-8 inches but I blast clean it so it may not even count.

Busa1340 · Dec 12, 2015

brandon429 said:
It's pretty fun to get into ecohuffs over sb/no sb lol but so many successful systems exist there w never be a best way. My sb ranges 6-8 inches but I blast clean it so it may not even count.

Yea I ask at least one question a day just to get better knowledge on small to big stuff lol. This hobby will prolly completely change by the time I set up this 90 lol.