[StirCrazy]

Originally Posted by newguy

If you are doing mainly LPS and softies with very few SPS, I would go with a sandbed. If you go barebottom you'd have to jack up the flow to keep detritus suspended (which your LPS and softies wouldn't like) or slow down the flow so you can suck it up off the bottom (which you SPS wouldn't like).

I am going to offer a different opinion on this also, with a rock structure and no sand bed you will have plenty of lower flow areas and you can even place your rock to creat areas for lower flow type corals. people think that corals will get bashed around in tanks with high turn over but this in't realy true, in high turn over tanks that have poorly though out flow patterens and or old style power heads that just blast the water then yes, but if you use bigger outlets on your return and go with tunze or Seio type power heads it will be fine. I have over a 70X turn over rate in my tank and no where in my tank is there more than a gental current, as I am moving the whole water colume not just 1/4 of it as most setups do.
I have mushrooms on my rocks and they remain still and not blasted in anyway except for the ones I have right at the outlet of my Tunze that I placed on the bottom of the tank about 4" from the rock.

you don't have to keep the crap suspended as it will find an area to settle and you can syphon it out with water changes, but it is easy to suspend it if you find that what you want to do.

Steve