What kind of bottom (substrate) do you have?

[stylaster]

Im interested in what kind of tank bottoms you guys run on your system. Any particular reason why you run what you do? I do bare bottom cause it makes it easy to get all the detritus out of the tank.

 

[beaslbob]

My tanks had shallow

i have a big fat ugly one.


:xd:

 

[stylaster]

lol ya no scary bottom pics please

 

[ritter6788]

BB for me. I had a 4 inch sand bed at one time but removed it.

 

[totion]

i have a 3 inch sand bed. before i got on here a friend told me that i needed it. so far i am happy with it, with a 70x turnover rate in my display from my powerheads nothing stays on it to cause buildup and my watchman goby/tiger pistol shrimp so far are loving it. i also have 15+ nassarius snails, 40+ dwarf ceriths, and not sure how many florida ceriths in there churning it up.

 

[Liquid360]

Ya know, I read a ton on here about problems with detritus getting caught in rock, in sand, in bioballs... I'm sorry but what exactly are y'all feeding your animals?! Steak? I've never had these issues. I use sand cause a few of the animals I like to keep need sand. Also I figure most reefs have sand for a good reason.

 

[jservedio]

I run a SSB about 2" deep just for looks and so I have something to jam frags into to keep them standing without needing eggcrate on the bottom. I have a little under 100x turnover and fairly large sized particles for the sand bed (75% 1-2mm aragonite sand and 25% 2-5mm aragonite sand) so it doesn't create sandstorms and I don't get any N or P and not a spot of algae.

My biggest problem with the sand is that it makes the glass hard to clean at the bottom and you have to be super careful with the magfloat because a single grain of big aragonite sand will scratch the hell out of the glass.

 

[Dtech07]

Hey Roy good question:
I have bare bottom in the back of my tank were most detritus collects with a shallow sandbed and the remaining 70% in the front. But I like the the bare bottom look also.

 

[GHill762]

my bottom is very pale.. it never sees the sun.. :behindsofa:

 

[rworegon]

Leave it to Roy to ask the provocative questions. I have sand in mine. The depth varies from day to day depending on how the 2 MP-40's I have in my 90 have blown it around. My pistol and goby, and my sand sifting star would be really angry if I decided to go BB.

 

[AZDesertRat]

5-6" 330 lb. Southdown DSB in a 60" 100G mixed reef and 2-3" in my 16G bowfront nano.

 

[Liquid360]

Pimpled and cottage cheese like... like a pair of conjoined obese hams with acne.

 

[Reefing Madness]

2" X-Fine Crushed Coral in a 240g

 

[feh]

I will never go with the sand I chose again. Its not the material... its the size. I'm actually contemplating bare bottom on my next build or something along the lines of starboard or some kind of "fake" sand bed I can just vac and be done. Really small particle sizes with sandbeds if you don't have the right "critters" to keep it sifted can compact. Larger particle sandbeds from my XP have their drawbacks too. Same with bare... but nutrient control isn't so much a problem with BB when it comes to the sandbed, just have to be selective with certain inhabitants like fish for instance - you have to find a solution for wrasse that burrow at night or rule those out. Either way you go you still have to weigh things out with what you want to keep in the tank and how you plan to control nutrients.

 

[glb]

One inch of live sand.

 

[Beach Bum]

Started also with 4 inch sand bottom now bare and love it

 

[Xingu]

I keep a shallow sand bed (about 1") mainly for looks. The light substrate also reflects my flashes back up to better expose the bottom of the fish I am photographing.

 

[c_healy]

2-3 inch argonite in my 55 reef and bare bottom in my 40 breeder with my clowns.

 

[Downbeach]

~ 6" of sugar sized oolitic aragonite, in a predominantly SPS mixed reef 180. Reasoning is explained in the attached article.

Ron Shimek's Website...Deep Sand Beds

 

[navila06]

2 inch argonite, 55g reef