Your opinions regarding bare bottom vs shallow sand bed vs deep sand bed

[Beverly]

At first, BB tanks look incredibly sterile and unnatural. After a few months, though, coralline algae takes hold and the bottom looks like the back of the tank. I even have anthelia growing on the bottom of my 120g, and some spoge growing under some rockwork.

I would never go back to using a sandbed. The amount of crud siphoned from our BB systems on a weekly basis would make you seriously think twice about a sandbed and how much crud actually accumulates there. Even the animals in the sandbed that eat crud, end up making crud of their own.

Here's my page on maintaining BB, sumpless, skimmerless systems. Skip all the text, if you want. All you really need to see are the pics of the changewater pails near the bottom of the page....

http://www.lostmymarblz.com/reeftips...ottomtanks.htm

[Bartman]

It's basically the difference between hardwood and carpet. If you've seen how much crap accumulates on hardwood you'll wonder where it all goes in a carpet. But carpet feels so nice on your feet and toes......... Better get out the vacuum.

[OCDP]

Originally Posted by Beverly

I would never go back to using a sandbed. The amount of crud siphoned from our BB systems on a weekly basis would make you seriously think twice about a sandbed and how much crud actually accumulates there. Even the animals in the sandbed that eat crud, end up making crud of their own.

This is why I am going BB. When I baste my sandbed, the amount of crap (literally) that comes up is disgusting. Sand looks good yes, and it's natural.. no arguments there. But BB is great for SPS keepers, and I would seriously like to start getting into the SPS craze.. therefore, BB is definitely the way to go. You can up the flow more, crud can easily be seen and siphoned out... and IMO (no experience yet) BB's look great if they're aquascaped and designed nicely.. some of the nicest tanks I've seen are BB.

Anyhow, I'm giving BB a try on my cube.... for the sake of low nutrients and keeping SPS though.