You are a salesman selling...

[WDKegge]

The type of substrate you use in your tank! Be it sand, bare bottom, crushed coral, shallow/deep sand bed. I am still on the fence on what I want to use on my new tank, and I am looking for that sales pitch to help me make up my mind.

So... Sell me that tank bottom!

 

[garra671]

The type of substrate you use in your tank! Be it sand, bare bottom, crushed coral, shallow/deep sand bed. I am still on the fence on what I want to use on my new tank, and I am looking for that sales pitch to help me make up my mind.

So... Sell me that tank bottom!

Personally I like crushed coral you get smaller chunks of shells that look more natural and it's fine enough for gobies to go sifting and digging

 

[bairdimusprime]

crushed coral or aragonite... both are great IMO, too heavy to be blown around by the wavemakers and they have plenty of extra pores for bacteria to grow.

 

[FDAWG]

Anything but Bahamas Ooolite unless you like sandstorms like every day.

 

[Lionfish Lair]

Tideline #3. It's not so fine that it blows around. Not too big that it catches detritus. Sand critters seem to love it. It has a smoother "pebble" than other sands, which benefits the bellies of my bottom dwelling critters.

 

[WDKegge]

Personally I like crushed coral you get smaller chunks of shells that look more natural and it's fine enough for gobies to go sifting and digging

Are there any drawbacks to crushed coral? Can wrasses use it or is it too rough?

 

[WDKegge]

Tideline #3. It's not so fine that it blows around. Not too big that it catches detritus. Sand critters seem to love it. It has a smoother "pebble" than other sands, which benefits the bellies of my bottom dwelling critters.

That's actually something very similar to what I am using right now, I picked it up from a bulk bin at my lfs.

 

[Jlobes]

im still a fan of the tropic eden Reefflakes.

 

[TomatoSauceTy]

Indo-pacific black is the best sand imo, it has a range of fineness with a few here and there chunky pieces which are great if you do want any kind of burrowing fish since they will need structural pieces. The ivory white with the ebony black is a beautiful contrast that really makes the corals pop especially the sand-bed corals. The contrast really just shows the beauty of it, I recommend stirring the sand every few days as you clean the glass and with every stroke of the sand it gives you a refreshing new view of the tank.

 

[garra671]

Are there any drawbacks to crushed coral? Can wrasses use it or is it too rough?

i have a melanarus wrasse and it has no issue with it. ill send you a picture of my sandbed and youll see what im talking about

 

[garra671]

Are there any drawbacks to crushed coral? Can wrasses use it or is it too rough?

this is what the sand looks like (end of the video)

 

[WilRams]

Currently trying bare bottom on my new tank. If I like it I might try it in the big tank later this year when I set it up. If I don't like it ill just add sand. Also gf wants a goby/pistol shrimp combo. If I do go with sand it will be what I have which is Caribsea Special Grade. Time will tell...

 

[BigKid4788]

Bare Bottom! NO Maintenance.....enough said. As the coralline grows, it looks really good. Again NO Maintenance!

 

[zwulfke]

I have the argh special I like it the Wrass seems to like it I go with 2in and the botton has egg crate its not too deep so it ends up causing issues and its just enough for the fish

 

[VTek]

I will say, I went with the white live aragonite. It looks really good....when its clean. Three very important words here- "when", "its" and "clean". If i could do it over again, I would go with crushed coral. The aragonite does get blown around very easily and makes creating flow in the right spots somewhat challenging. Vacuuming is also a challenge as it is so dam fine.

I WILL SAY THOUGH, WHEN ITS CLEAN IT IS 100!!!!!!

 

[zwulfke]

I like some dirty sand it looks mor natural to me