Sand or no sand?

[sheeb]

Thinking about starting up a 40 gallon I have in the basement and was wondering if no sand was a good idea. Always thought the bare bottom looked cool

 

[EeyoreIsMySpiritAnimal]

Go for it! Easy to add sand later if you change your mind.

 

[shakacuz]

Go for it! Easy to add sand later if you change your mind.

+1 to this. i have sand in my 40B currently. i have a wrasse, pistol shrimp, and jawfish in my tank so i need the sand.

 

[Kfactor]

i had bb for all my tanks but on my new tank i went sand just love the look

 

[sheeb]

i had bb for all my tanks but on my new tank i went sand just love the look

Is it harder to clean with no sand?

 

[ZoWhat]

It's extremely important that when you do waterchanges on a bare bottom, you change the water from the bottom up

 

[sheeb]

It's extremely important that when you do waterchanges on a bare bottom, you change the water from the bottom up

What are the downsides of bare bottom

 

[ZoWhat]

What are the downsides of bare bottom

No matching bare top

 

[sheeb]

No matching bare top

Will it get more dirty?

 

[sheeb]

No matching bare top

// is it bad for a nano tank?

 

[vetteguy53081]

I started last tank bare Bottom and eventually sand although only 1/2" - 3/4" only

 

[vetteguy53081]

// is it bad for a nano tank?

You can go either way

 

[EeyoreIsMySpiritAnimal]

Will it get more dirty?

It really depends on your tank. For example, If you have good flow across the bottom, not a lot of detritus will stick. If you have a good cuc to eat leftover food, you won't need to worry about it settling on the bottom and looking bad.

 

[EeyoreIsMySpiritAnimal]

It's a lot easier to add sand if you decide you want it than it would be to remove all the sand if you regret not trying bb

 

[Adam07]

Thinking about starting up a 40 gallon I have in the basement and was wondering if no sand was a good idea. Always thought the bare bottom looked cool

You don't have to have sand but sand will help a lot with biological filtration. If you don't use sand make sure you have a lot of bio media in your filter and a decent amount of rocks or decor for the beneficial bacteria to cultivate.

 

[ninjamyst]

Sand always. Pros outweight the cons.

Pros:
- brighten up the tank, corals look better, fish look better, photos look better
- opens up to more fish and inverts that require sand like wrasse, diamond goby, etc
- easier to place corals on sandbed without them toppling over

Cons:
- detritus trap and eventually needs to be cleaned