bare bottom?

[gbeef]

I'm running bare bottom in a 14Gal biocube my setup has been up for 4 months. BB for me is easy to clean thats why i do it. People dont notice its bareness factor. I also had a 7gal a couple years back. same thing loved how easy it was to clean.

Do you like the look of Cyano?
This is the main reason why i have barebottom ive had bad cyano outbreak in the past with my 55Gal. It seem to be caused by the sand bed absoring photospate and too much debres.

I know people have had different opinons also on sand. I love the look but i cant stand the maintance. Thats the trade off. Also its easier to add sand later then remove. If your on the fence you can always go BB now if you hate it add sand.

[Whatigot]

may be the case at first, but once established, which can take some time, there is no better, simpler tool in a smaller systems filtration.

[MCC]

Watts per gallon means nothing... all three choices of your tank is power compact...IMO the same "power" and usage... PC lights just aren't good either way... either way with any of the mention tank you are going with the same corals... you won't be keeping any SPS..and the LPS will be placed higher in the tank... as for Calms..good luck...

So I would get the biggest tank you can afford... if you are new to saltwater...the bigger the tank the easier for you to maintain...you will just hit a road block with a 8 gallon...

As for sand.. i didn't read the other posts...but sand is added biological filtration just like liverocks... so without sand you will be losing some filtrating power... IMO

[Boomboy]

i personally like the look of the sand, i wouldnt go deeper than 1" though, no reason in nanos, you just do water changes. its alot easier to do water changes on a nano then it is on a larger tank, where 10% is 1 gallon instead of 10, also if you have a larger tank, you make more water than needed and use the rest for the nano.