bare bottom or not

[jfarr]

starting a 20 gal nano and going back and forth about bare bottom just wondering if anyone has done both and witch you perfere thanx

 

[tozzi]

I like the natural look, sand. Had barebottom, always looked like it was lacking somethin.

 

[Flanders]

barebottom makes more sense for a larger tank that is more difficult to clean.

 

[Gary Majchrzak]

I tend to notice corals and fishes more than substrate on the bottom of any aquarium.
(What's on the bottom of my aquarium... see what I mean?)
20 gallon aquarium is nice... very affordable LARGE water changes. Put whatever you want on the bottom!

 

[der_wille_zur_macht]

Do you have hardwood flooring or wall to wall carpeting?

 

[belgian_waffleman]

Great analogy DWZM!

I switched to bare bottom and I love it. Easy to clean, but my tank is a 90G.

Waffleman

 

[Capt_Cully]

I'm a tweener. I have an extremely shallow sand bed with some bare spots. It's purely for aesthetics. It is continuously turned over by a hypervigallent ADHD OCD diamond goby. Otherwise I siphon it with weekly water changes.

I say, sand bed.

 

[der_wille_zur_macht]

I'm using the exact same sort of arrangement as Capt. Probably about 50% of the bottom has sand and it's there for looks. Plus I love the interaction certain livestock have with substrate (i.e. my pistol shrimp and goby pair, or my cave gobies). You couldn't have these critters in a barebottom tank.

Bare bottom is easy to clean but you pretty much HAVE to clean it all the time to keep it looking nice. Sand gives you a little wiggle room since it can hide debris - but that's obviously a double edged sword, because you don't want the debris just sitting around rotting.

 

[jfarr]

thanx i think ill go sandy i was leaning that way but wasnt sure

 

[Capt_Cully]

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