bare bottom tank
 

how many of you run bare bottom tanks, and what are your experiences?
im planing to remove all my sand run bare bottom for a few months to get everything under control ( algae) then add sand later on, or just grow corals on the bottom :razz:

i tried it for a while it was better in every single aspect EXCEPT in aesthetics.
easier to vaccuum virtually no limit for flow in the tank.

I like the look of white sand and creatures that like sandbeds so after about 6 months I added sand back again.

been running both my aquariums bb for a while now (5+years)
sand always looks better IMO , its pretty much a witch one do you like better. BB is easier to clean does not look as nice , and also puts some limitations for certain livestock. However for me I dont keep any wrasses or sifting gobies so my only drawback is looks, mind you I don't dislike the looks of a bare bottom just prefer the look of sand . Also easier to re aqua-scape parts of the tank without creating possible issues stirring up sand. If you decide to go bb take your time removing the sand , don't do it all in one shot

Only good experiances here.

My advice would be to make sure you are staying on top of debris removal. Removing the sand bed will be a huge leap towards getting nutients under control and will set you up for truly purging the system of bound nutrients but you will need to do your part to truly fix the nutrient problems and resulting algae problems to get your system running efficiently. BB don't have the nutrient sink that a sand bed temporarly provides so removal is key.

I'd also keep an eye on your alk levels after removing the sand if you are on a dosing regimen. Consumption can drop significantly. And when nutrients truly start to drop you may have to reduce lighting some.

Don't add sand until the point in time you see your live rocks have stopped shedding debris. Or keep it BB : )

We ran a 210g reef BB for about 3 months but hated the look. Added sand again and never looked back.

+1 too all of the above
Easier to maintain but after awhile I caved in and got sand again (black sand this time around). Corals look better sitting on sand than on BB imo.

I'm just not sure if I should clean my sand, my levels are all good but I have hair algae from when my tank crashed in the summer

Sand is the devil. Always had trouble with urn only way I had half ads tank was to stir and tornado daily. I finally went with just anough sand for rocks to barely sit on and algae went away. From now I hate sand and only put it whee rocks are so they sit nicer ajendont scratch glass. Sand is bad. Lots of matience I found. Diatoms and that red algae like crazy with it.. plus hated my fish scooping and dropping it on my corals. Went with sand just enough to barely cover glass and will never go back. I goundbtur sand as my biggest enemy. Went from 50lb dry in 60gallon g be to 5lb dry and way better.Also it increased my water volume by 7gallons which helps with perimeter swings.

I always use the coarser grade not the sugar fine sand.

Doesn't get stirred up as easily.

I keep lots of leopard wrasses so some sand flies up when they dig themselves in, but no sandsifting gobies who like to drop sand on all your favourite corals.

I've done both BB and sand, never noticed any difference in corals, and didn't really like the BB look. For me, a display tank needs sand to look right.

I prefer BB in SPS systems because 100x turnover will even blow coral gravel around. I like the look of a "Starboard" bottom which is a brand name of HDPE or cutting board plastic. I had a tank all set up with the HDPE to transfer my SPS tank into, but the new tank never got water, so I don't know how that would have worked out. I know algae sticks to acrylic way worse than glass, but HDPE might be too slick to have that issue, so maybe I would have regretted it, maybe not. My BB SPS tank was about 50% coralline covered, but it never grew in all the way. It looked good where the coralline was, but aesthetically speaking, I don't like the look of the bare glass.

I tried coarse substrate in my tank but didn't like the added time it took to vacuum. The bottom glass is painted black so looks alright and coraline will eventually cover it

Attachment 13649this pic is old, but you can see how things cover the BB. Over time the zoas over took the blue cloves. The downside was they also grew up the sides of the glass and it was a chore to keep it clear.

Other side
Attachment 13652

I love the look of sand but I thought if I can get rid of the algae wait a few months then add a fine layer, or just remove most of it and vacuum the heck of what's staying In the tank

like the pictures don.ald

Looks good Donald! I thought of doing something like that too with Monti or something...