Bare bottom or not?
 

I've read a thousand threads on the subject and still can't decide.

I don't like the look of bare bottom but don't like the problems that sand causes when it traps neutriants.

Has anyone here been able to find a best of both worlds?

I've seen some people epoxy sand to the bottom, but after a whole it gets covered with algae and it looks like crap.

I ended up going with just enough sand to cover the bottom of the tank. I wanted more of a natural look. I find bare bottom tanks more of that ultra clean sanitized look which is not what I was going for with my DT.

I have mostly bare with just enough sand in the front I the rock just to give the impression of a sand bed

I tried having a bit of sand with BB, didn't work for me as it blew all over the place. Eventually I gave up and siphoned it all out. Now I have a good sized patch of ricordia that are taking over and I quite like the look of it, its only at about 25-30% of the front side of the tank but looks pretty good. I was never successful with a sandbed so BB has been my only option.

Ideally for a SPS tank, BB is best, but I also really wanted more of an overall reef display, so i used about an inch of sand. It's completely blown out around the front, and the back areas are good, but covered in broken frags, snail shells, etc, that I can't reach, and it kinda looks like crap. Not sure I wouldn't do it again, but I used eggcrate under everything and can't siphon it out now.

What about covering the bottom in flat shelf pieces of rock? So it looks like a rocky bottom.

Has anyone ever done that?

Bare bottom ruins the look of a tank.
There are lots of tanks that run and look great with sand. Get the proper clean up crew and the sand can help you.

Bare bottom tanks can be beautiful, especially once you have enough coral growth to start covering some of the bottom up. I personally just siphoned most of my sand out in my home DT this past weekend, going to give a BB a try.

Went BB for 6 months but wife & I hated the look so added sand and that's what I've always done since. Not an SPS heavy tank though, mainly LPS.

I just go with just enough sand to cover the glass and I figure I can always siphon it out and replace it down the road if it starts to be a problem. It does shift around a bit in the current, so I have to relevel it every few months or so. I have a diamond goby who is constantly sifting the sand keeping it clean (best idea ever, I have one large guy in my 280g, he's a total workhorse.) There are a few other sand sifting gobies but be wary that some might scoop and then swim up before spitting the sand out, which will drive you crazy if you don't like sand on your rocks and corals. Diamond gobies OTOH just spit it out at the bottom, so you don't get the clouds of sand with that particular species.

I've done BB and I thought it would grow on me, but it never did. The thing you have to consider with BB is that it's really done out of convenience for cleaning up crud accumulation, and you would be surprised just how much crud can come out of nowhere. The live rock itself is pooping dirty sand. For this reason, a tank bottom covered in flat rock isn't the same thing as BB because you'd still have to vaccuum out in all the crevasses and underneath and stuff.