Help with bare bottom vs sand

[aaron186]

I could use some help deciding if I should put sand in my tank. The tank is a Red Sea reefer 350. It was a mixed tank before I moved but I didn’t have much luck with SPS. I am restarting tank in new house. I have spent quite a bit upgrading tank so I’m hoping to have better luck. (This is my 5th tank).

The build will be the 75 gal display with a trigger 26 with roller mat sump, a RO elite 150sss skimmer with neck scraper and waste collector, a Neptune COR 20 return that will run through a pentair UV to the return line. Tank will be run through an apex and will do auto water changes through dos and have a second dos for dosing tank. The lights are radion g5 30 x 2. I currently have 2 mp40s to go on the back wall. I have already put ABS plastic on the bottom of the tank. I was planning on adding 2 more mp40s to the bottom of tank. The rock is Marco rock that I broke up and built a habitat negative space aquascape similar to BRS. There’s a lot of caves and overhangs. The tank is adjacent to garage so a lot of equipment will be in there and go through wall.

I was originally planning on SPS bare bottom. My wife just informed me that she loved the LPS and softies in my original tank and isn’t happy I wasn’t planning on including them. I want her to be involved in the tank. If I skip the second set of power heads, would this work ok for a mixed reef? Should I add sand if I plan on going mixed? I spent a lot on making this low maintenance and wasn’t planning on siphoning tank. I assume I will need to do so if I add sand at least once a month or so. The rock has a lot of nooks and overhangs that will make siphoning hard. What are your guys thoughts on adding sand?

 

[Big Smelly fish]

Well for me I like BB over a sand bed. Easier to keep clean and higher flow. Been running BB for years and it really doesn’t matter what type of corals you want.
It will matter on the type of fish and invertebrates you want. Some need sand.

 

[aaron186]

Did you use dry rock or live rock? I’m seeing lots of people having issues starting a BB tank with dry rock. I was planning on adding some marine pure cubes to the sump and using bacteria in a bottle

also have you had issues placing softies and low flow corals into a BB tank? I wanted to put some cans and shrooms towards the bottom which I was worried about putting a power head on the bottom of tank

 

[ReefGeezer]

I ran BB for years. I now have sand now. The sand is blown to the rear corners to the tank, and bare glass is showing elsewhere. The bare glass is covered in purple Coralline and looks great. I included the sand for my Wrasses. It can be a PIA but the Wrasses love it. Without them, I suppose I'd prefer the bare bottom. FWIW, I have never put anything on the bottom. I just put the rocks directly on the glass.

Two MP40's should be plenty for your tank. If it were me, I would add Gyre type power heads rather than more MP40's. There will be dead spots in the tank where LPS that don't like a lot of flow can live. For example, I have an Octopus Frogspawn that is doing great beside an overflow partition that blocks a lot of the flow. My Zoas also like quite a bit of flow if it isn't direct and continuous.

 

[Big Smelly fish]

As far as Starting BB with dry rock I have only started one with dry rock. It turned out ok. But I alway use live rock. Nowadays it Florida live rock. I just like live rock and don’t mind spend more on it. Not that bad when you consider other cost of reef equipment.

 

[SlugSnorter]

Get sand if you want animals that like it, or if you like the aesthetics of sand. It also provides microfauna and minor filtration/param benefits.

It is not needed for a healthy tank though, in the end the biggest factor is still animals/aesthetics

 

[exnisstech]

I removed sand from all my tanks and now run BB on all but am down to only 2 tanks. I have LPS such as meat coral, donut, lobos, bubble, pectinia and cabbage coral all on the glass and doing fine. I've really gotten to like BB and once it's covered in coraline I like it even more. It's just easier to maintain for me and looks nicer because my sand always had the green and purple algae in the sand visible through the glass that looked bad.