Bare bottom or not?

[albert_dao]

There's a super easy solution if you want to cover the bottom of your tank:

1. rock placement - learn from the FW guys. Look up Iwagumi.
2. coarse substrates - think Caribsea Florida Crush Coral or Special Grade Seaflor.
3. mega flow - 50x plus turnover per hour.
4. brittlestars and bristleworms - lots of them.

You should never have to gravel vac with this arrangement. I'm doing something like this and if you fluff up my sand bed, no detritus comes up, only fine aragonite particles.