Go bare or get sandy?

[18oreefer]

As i watch my tank i can see my tangs doodies blow around. In my other tank the fish logs didnt stay waterborne too long. Anyone have any thoughts on putting a small layer of 1 to 3 inch pieces of live rock, rubble, to cover the bottom.

 

[thesauce]

For crushed coral, I stir up a section of the tank when I do my water changes, alternating every week. That being said, I only have to deal with 30 gallons and I don't have too much substrate to deal with. If I had it to do over again, I'd probably do sand.

 

[charliethetuna88]

im thinking all the same thing i am moving my 120 and i always had sand i was thinking bare bottom but it just doesnt look as nice when i just moved my 120 i had a 4inch sand bed and i tought it was going to be filthy but belive it or not it wasnt nearly as dirty as i thought it would be so im going to say wilth it it just looks great

 

[18oreefer]

im thinking all the same thing i am moving my 120 and i always had sand i was thinking bare bottom but it just doesnt look as nice when i just moved my 120 i had a 4inch sand bed and i tought it was going to be filthy but belive it or not it wasnt nearly as dirty as i thought it would be so im going to say wilth it it just looks great

Thats a good thing to know. How long was the tank set up before you moved it?

 

[aaron]

Cutting board (High density polyethelyne) gives the brightness / light bounce of sand and is easy to keep clean. Its a bit of a compromise but worth it in my estimation. Being able to get rid of the significant junk that comes out of the live rock is worth it, and more so If you have fish turds rolling around in there.

 

[E.intheC]

I've had both a barebottom (with white HDPE) and I've had a few tanks with a sandy bottom. I like both, but prefer the look of sand. IMO it looks better. I've seen a whole lot of really nice BB tanks. I don't like the 'glass' barebottom look, and I don't like CC or a cloudy tank due to sugar fine sand.

1 inch or so for me.

 

[cali_reef]

People with starboard bottom tanks find them to be detritus trap after a year or two. If there is water between the starboard and bottom glass, crap will be in there.

I tried faux sand bed, it became a "shallow" sand bed in places after a few years, as rocks breaks down to sand if you have animals eating off it and boring in it. The coralline scraped off the front glass also becomes "sand" in the tank.

 

[charliethetuna88]

The tank was set up for over 4 years

 

[2slo4me]

The ocean is not in your living room

lol but part of it might be!:shhh:

 

[WikedTechniQuezZ]

Sand

 

[reefnewbe]

i struggled with this too (my tank is much smaller) i decided to go bare bottom because i painted the top of my stand white to reflect the light back into tank. it is also alot easier to shop vac out the bottom every 5 weeks or so.

 

[cthoughts1]

Sand... And get 2 sand sifting gobies to do the cleaning for you... I haven't had to worry about vacuuming my sand in over a year and a half.. All I do is "rake" the sand every other month just to stir things around.. Love my Gobies...