bare bottom tank

[SeaHorse_Fanatic]

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.

[Aquattro]

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.

[Myka]

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.

[Proteus]

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

[don.ald]

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.

[don.ald]

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[don.ald]

Other side
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