Sandless or bare bottom options

[Reefer Optima]

Hey guys, setting up a tank & looking to go bare bottom. I just wanted to see what people are doing with bare bottom tanks. Anyone going totally bare bottom & if so any regrets?

I see options for ABS plastic, HDPE, PVC, sheets in 1/8" & 1/4" thickness. I also see smooth and textured sheets. Any recommendations? Thanks and happy Easter!

 

[Perthegallon]

Hey guys, setting up a tank & looking to go bare bottom. I just wanted to see what people are doing with bare bottom tanks. Anyone going totally bare bottom & if so any regrets?

I see options for ABS plastic, HDPE, PVC, sheets in 1/8" & 1/4" thickness. I also see smooth and textured sheets. Any recommendations? Thanks and happy Easter!

I was going bare bottom really didn’t like it I really like the sand look I mean it’s nice for cleaning having no sand but the algae starts to grow on it and you have no real way to take it off unless you go in and scrape it off

 

[X-37B]

Plane old bare bottom glass.

 

[Maxx]

I have preferred to use cutting board, or HDPE for my tanks. It's not really necessary, you can use the glass all on it's own. The cutting board just protects the bottom from any potential rock falls which could break the glass on the bottom.

If you want to use white to reflect light back up at the corals, you can paint the bottom of the tank white, and keep it clean. As you can see above, coralline algae will grow on the bottom and cover the tank, bare glass or HDPE.

 

[Cory]

Paint the underside white. But id prefer some plastic for protection of falling rocks.

 

[Reefer Optima]

Thank you all for the replies. I'm hopeful I can control the amount of nuisance algae growing on the bottom until I get solid coralline algae growth on bottom. I have recently got rid of GHA after a long battle in my tank. I will be transferring all my live rocks from my old tank & they have a good amount of Coralline on them.

I do like the idea of having something on the bottom incase I drop a rock or a rockslide.

90's reefer, how long has your tank been running for? I really like the look of it with the coralline on bottom.

 

[hankacrank]

I've been slowly removing sand every week from my tank for the past month as I'm battling dinoflagellates. I have what I believe is Amphidinium dino. I'm down to less than a 1/4" layer and this is the best my dinos have been controlled so far. My nutrients had never been zero, but I was running GFO and my phosphates were 0.04 consistently before. I do believe in retrospect that running GFO was a mistake.

My point is, as I've been approaching a very small amount of sand left, I have contemplated just removing the sand completely for several weeks, sun dry the sand, then treat it with H2O2, and add back just a very thin layer of sand to simply cover the surface of the bottom. This tank inspired me to do that:

Evan Luo's Bonsai Aquarium

 

[Reefer Optima]

I've heard a lot of people recommending not running GFO lately including BRS. I got a small media reactor but may just run carbon in it. Is it easier to start with no sand and add it later than starting with sand and removing it later?

That tank is beautiful, looks like most of the corals are floating and I like how much open space there is on the bottom.

 

[hankacrank]

I've heard a lot of people recommending not running GFO lately including BRS. I got a small media reactor but may just run carbon in it. Is it easier to start with no sand and add it later than starting with sand and removing it later?

That tank is beautiful, looks like most of the corals are floating and I like how much open space there is on the bottom.

Either way has it's ups and downs. Both should work fine if done slowly. I started with 1.5" of sand and I took it out slowly. Maybe 0.5" a week over 3 weeks. My tank has only been up maybe 3 months, and I was stirring all of the sand every week before water change. If you have a deep sand bed that is never stirred, and is more than a couple months old...when you remove a large a mount of it or disturb it, you risk a hefty nutrient spike that could be dangerous.

The flip side, if you start with a bare bottom, is you have less buffering/stability at first until the live rock develops an optimal population of bacteria on it. Slowly adding sand is probably better! Just add a little bit each week, and allow the bacterial population to grow slowly and out-compete diatoms and dinos.