Poll: Sand or Bare Bottom - What's your Preference?

[75galOCD]

BB is the upper reef not the reef floor a different landscape I'm modifying my approach "hence with" you could say I going for it baby! My tank is upper reef.

 

[MJC]

Which ever you prefer. After seeing this pole over and over for many years.
Both can become a useless argument.

 

[standam]

Here is an argument.In BB can put more flow if needed,if cover the entire bottom with coral you have a smaller surface for cleaning.

 

[Rip Van Winkle]

I also think it's a matter of taste and one is not necessarily better than another. It just depends what people like in their tanks. Many of my friends here have BB tanks.

Sand all the way. I SCUBA dive and the look of the reef is what got me into salt water tanks to begin with. One of these days, I'll see the perfect tank reef while diving, take a picture or video, and recreate in a tank lol!

I think the same way.

I see kind of two schools of thought.
I liken BB to gardening, where folks don't want anything in their systems except what they put there. Like ULNS, where it's a very structured and controlled environment. It's like a vegetable garden in a greenhouse, where you're growing your produce and you don't want anything (including mother nature) interfering with it.
As for the upper reef view, logically, if you're talking upper reef, then there shouldn't be anything on the bottom of your tank, including rock, because rocks on upper reefs are arranged like a wall, not sitting on something. If the rocks are resting on the bottom of the tank, it's hard for me to see that as upper reef? It's just a BB tank.

The DSB school seems to be for folks that are looking for a more natural approach to their systems where they want to try to establish an ecosystem environment with as many of the biomes that exist in nature, replicated in their tanks and allowing mother nature take her course.

For myself I voted DSB and would never consider any other option. I don't like to think of my system as gardening coral unless it would be something set up for a business.

 

[hart24601]

Depends on what you like and your goals. Heavy bioload with lots of big fish poo? Might want to consider BB if you tend to forget or can’t access the sand to clean. No joke I have helped local reefers figure out why they are having issues with acros , many times after keeping them for quite a while in great shape. Every time I ask about the sand. Every time they have a nasty sand bed and when they siphon 5g out of the bed it smells rotten. Clean it up or remove and issues are gone. Many people now jam pack coral even on the sand bed and forget or can’t clean it.

This isn’t something I am guessing about, it has really happed at least a half dozen times in the past year or so.

Do what you like but do consider the pros and cons. For sps tank it’s nice to have power heads on the bottom especially as colonies grow out.

For me personally sand looks good in a lagoon or low energy style tank, but the big reefcrests generally have rock bottom and not sand, so when I see big acros and sand it seems unnatural to me.

 

[hart24601]

No offense to those with BB I have not seen a cool one. Even a scattering of sand - which would not prevent any kind of maintenance (JMHO) looks better than nothting

Ouch.

 

[MnFish1]

Ouch.

But I don’t like the look of that tank. I like a more open tank. Just personal preference. That make a B.B. tank hard for me to like

 

[hart24601]

But I don’t like the look of that tank. I like a more open tank. Just personal preference. That make a B.B. tank hard for me to like

Haha no problem, great part of the hobby, different strokes for different folks.

My tank in that pic is actually quite open, it had ceramic structure, maybe 30lb total.

Share your tank so I can see what you like!

 

[stylaster]

Here is my 312g bare bottom tank running over 4 years now

 

[Bronx19]

Starting a new tank now, I will never go sand again. Messy, inconvenient crap.

 

[Patientman]

Sand in the display tank ... just feel that it makes the fish feel more "at home" ... allows for different variety of fish ... sifters and diggers .... place for pods and such for fish food ... and looks more natural (to me). Bare bottom of course in the quarantine tank.

 

[A4goulet]

I started my 120g as BB but have just recently dropped in 40lbs of special grade reef sand (dry) for a shallow sand bed. I have always kept a light bio load and have always struggled to keep sufficient nutrients. For me BB was always easy to keep clean (too clean) but you cant beat the look of clean white sand. Saying that if I ever start a frag tank it will be BB.

 

[Tyler_Fishman]

Sand is very attractive natural and in a well maintained tank asthetically pleasing, a healthy Sand bed should not have algae or a layer of detritus, sand is a filter, a home for microbials, the only reason I would have bare bottom is for a frag tank, if you can't maintain a sand bed with sps because it's a "nutrient sink" then you should rethink is it you or is it really the sand bed. Just my opinion on the topic

 

[MnFish1]

Haha no problem, great part of the hobby, different strokes for different folks.

My tank in that pic is actually quite open, it had ceramic structure, maybe 30lb total.

Share your tank so I can see what you like!

Its there on my signature. I think it was more the angle of yoru picture - but I still dont like bare bottom tanks

 

[Bronx19]

Sand is fine if you don't have a mountain of rocks around it.