Sand or bare bottom. Need advice

[ReeferBill]

So now the consensus is to have bare bottom??

 

[Rmckoy]

I personally prefer and have always had sand bottoms . IMO it looks more natural . Less stocking restrictions .

 

[Barb0713]

Hi gang,
So getting back into the hobby. I know enough to be dangerous. Need advice. Got a water box system. Will have skimmer, carbon reactor, etc. always loved sand bottom but people have said they create nitrates. Questions are this
1. Do they create nitrates?
2. Do I need to clean the sand?
3. How deep do you make it?
Any experience advice would be great. Thanks.

I have a tiger conch . It leaves vacuum marks in my sand in straight lines .

 

[ReeferBill]

Sooooo. The consensus is sand bed….

 

[Philip Chin]

Sand definitely! My jawfishes need it. Without sand, it looks too much like the pet store

 

[jmichaelh7]

If I was to add sand to a bare bottom would it cause nutrient issues

 

[Miami Reef]

Sooooo. The consensus is sand bed….

The consensus is do what makes you happy. Both sand and bare bottom have their own pros and cons.

 

[ReeferBill]

Haha I know. Enjoying the back and forth though. Good to hear both sides

 

[WRLR]

I've always had a sand bed in over 30 years of keeping reefs. Looks more natural. BUT! I have kept my current reef tank successfully for 5 years it crashed killing all the sps (so I thought) and I have spent 8 plus months trying to work out how my thriving reef crashed. The culprit it seems was the sand bed. Nothing worked and ICPs showed nothing abnormal. Then a LFS suggested possible OTS and recommended removing the sand bed slowly. So with each 10% water change I removed a section of the sand bed. It has not all gone yet but what I can tell you is that my Nitrates have dropped from the realms of 15ppm and that was with carbon dosing to currently 1.9ppm with no carbon dosing. Also, visually my sps are recovering and I am getting new growth from the bases on the rock where I thought they had all completely died. Just something to think about for the long term.

 

[G Santana]

In a barebottom there is no way to hide accumulated detritus which is an eyesore but you have easy access to removing it.
I have to vacuum the BB monthly. It's amazing how much muck builds up in a month.
Sand hides it but at what cost.
Just my 2 cents.

 

[NotoriousDMC]

Hi gang,
So getting back into the hobby. I know enough to be dangerous. Need advice. Got a water box system. Will have skimmer, carbon reactor, etc. always loved sand bottom but people have said they create nitrates. Questions are this
1. Do they create nitrates?
2. Do I need to clean the sand?
3. How deep do you make it?
Any experience advice would be great. Thanks.

About two years into the hobby and have sand, so I can’t comment on not having it, but I’ll offer this FWIW: if I could be convinced that a tank would be as stable—even if that requires some additional patience—I’d probably go without the sand, and I should clarify I’ve no known “bad” experiences with my current sand.

Why? Because I don’t want to clean sand—and don’t. I have critters, including a fish, do that and the downside to it is they make huge piles of it, including on top of bottom-based corals. I want, and have, corals everywhere in my tank, including the back wall and I really wish it were easier to mount corals—e.g., torches to the bottom.

FYI: I saw someone on here paint their tank bottom (outside obviously) white and it looked really cool reflecting the light the way a light sand would.

 

[vlangel]

About two years into the hobby and have sand, so I can’t comment on not having it, but I’ll offer this FWIW: if I could be convinced that a tank would be as stable—even if that requires some additional patience—I’d probably go without the sand, and I should clarify I’ve no known “bad” experiences with my current sand.

Why? Because I don’t want to clean sand—and don’t. I have critters, including a fish, do that and the downside to it is they make huge piles of it, including on top of bottom-based corals. I want, and have, corals everywhere in my tank, including the back wall and I really wish it were easier to mount corals—e.g., torches to the bottom.

FYI: I saw someone on here paint their tank bottom (outside obviously) white and it looked really cool reflecting the light the way a light sand would.

Yes, I painted my tank's outside bottom glass with a sandstone paint to mimic sand. It looked pretty good but I did not like scraping the Coraline algae off it. You can look at pics at the beginning of my build thread to see how it looks, "Dawn natural nutrient reef garden". I wanted bb when I had seahorses but when I was done with seahorses I added sand. That was several years ago and have not regretted it. I do need to clarify that I keep a high nutrients softie dominant tank.

 

[NotoriousDMC]

Yes, I painted my tank's outside bottom glass with a sandstone paint to mimic sand. It looked pretty good but I did not like scraping the Coraline algae off it. You can look at pics at the beginning of my build thread to see how it looks, "Dawn natural nutrient reef garden". I wanted bb when I had seahorses but when I was done with seahorses I added sand. That was several years ago and have not regretted it. I do need to clarify that I keep a high nutrients softie dominant tank.

Yep. That’s the one!!!