How many with bare bottom sps only tanks went back to sand?

[DogueDeBordeaux]

It is time to add rock or sand and rock in my 300g. It is hard to make a decision starting out with or without sand. I know it is easier to add than to take out, but would be a pain either way.

Is it hard to keep detritus off the bare bottom?
Will corals attach easy to the bottom of glass to fill in?
What are some corals that will be good for the bottom that the growth will be easy to manage with an sps tank?

What are things I need to think about in making the bare bottom, or ssb decision? I am not going to run filter socks. I will have live rock in the sumps. I have a 29g that can be set up for a fuge in the future.

 

[OneReef]

It is time to add rock or sand and rock in my 300g. It is hard to make a decision starting out with or without sand. I know it is easier to add than to take out, but would be a pain either way.

Is it hard to keep detritus off the bare bottom?
Will corals attach easy to the bottom of glass to fill in?
What are some corals that will be good for the bottom that the growth will be easy to manage with an sps tank?

What are things I need to think about in making the bare bottom, or ssb decision? I am not going to run filter socks. I will have live rock in the sumps. I have a 29g that can be set up for a fuge in the future.

I like a little sand just for aesthetics. But bare bottom is nice as I feel you can keep it cleaner and really crank the flow. You will have pockets where detritus will settle, it's about impossible to get flow in every single spot. You'll just have to suck it out occasionally. Think about sand if you want Jawfish, diamond gobies, nassarius snails, sand sleeping wrasses, or pistol shrimp/goby combo.

I've always liked bare bottoms that people let colorful zoanthids grow on and cover the whole bottom.

Try it bare and if you don't like, it's easy to add sand.

 

[Dog boy Dave]

The bottom in my tank started out bare but after five years is pink every where and very encrusted with all kind of stuff in places. I do however use remote sand in a sump.

 

[JSeymour]

I prefer no sand if the inhabitants can live without it. Things are just so much cleaner in general, which as we all know, typically means better color in SPS. I actually only have two tanks with sand in them. My oldest reef and a FOWLR (have a yellowfin surgeon that requires sand in its diet). The old reef's sand is almost gone though, dissolving over the years. I won't add anymore once it's gone in another year or two either.

 

[Blueline12]

No sand.

 

[Bill@IA]

Considering how much debate one reads about whether to use filter socks or not, it would seem using sand, due to its detritus trapping nature, would seem counter productive in a SPS dominated reef aquarium.

 

[teebone110]

I have had a sandbed, then went bare bottom for 5 years, and now I'm back to a sandbed. My reasoning for going back to a sandbed was that my sps lacked colour and I wanted to improve my nutrient balance. I found my system was too clean without the sandbed and I also wanted to keep a few sand sleeping wrasse.

I also run a 200 micro filter sock to keep things cleaner in my sump.

 

[AliciaP]

I have a barebottom, but no SPS. I wanted to chime in because I can keep high flow under the rocks and make sure detritus gets cleared out as much as possible. Works nicely for me, and with the coraline covering, it does look nice. But I don't have much coraline. It doesn't grow very fast (I don't use additives at all) and we've been bare bottom for a little more than 6 months.

 

[hypnoj]

I did BB for several months, but got tired of sucking out the accumulation with a wet vac. Not a lot was accumulating, but when it did, it piled up a little and I didn't like the look. It seems now that I have sand it is less maintenance; my CC just does all the work.

 

[SeanT]

Wet vac?
Why would you need that to vacuum out detritus?

A simple hose and a bucket is all you need.

 

[hypnoj]

Wet vac?
Why would you need that to vacuum out detritus?

A simple hose and a bucket is all you need.

wet vac = hose and bucket with POWER!! hehe

 

[Reef Bass]

Had a bare bottom but then put some pants on. ;-)

I ended up putting sand in after going a month or so barebottom. The small debris pockets were annoying, and it turns out I think a shallow sandbed looks much better.

 

[golfish]

I did BB for a few years and went back to a DEEP sand bed..

LR, DSB, good skimmer, water changes and a kalk reactor, keeping it simple worked best for me....

right Ali ?

 

[MadBeach]

I went through a phase where I ran bare bottom with a starboard base. It looked great at first but then the coralline algae grew all over it (as I expected) and I tried to scrap that clean but that got old real fast. After a few months of looking at that coralline algae covered starboard, I just put a 1" layer of sand back in the tank over the starboard one evening so that the tank could get that more natural look back. To each his own really. It just wasn't for me.

 

[slojmn]

I ran bare bottom in my last tank for 4+ years. I decided to go with a SSB in my current tank. I like it better but it is a bit more work. I pull sand out every few weeks in small amounts and add new sand...Steve Weast use to swap out sand in his gorgeous huge reef each month. I love all the wrasses I can have with the sandbed.

 

[Mock]

Shallow Sand Bed for me..... Bare bottom was truly bare in my tank.... I like the look better with a knuckle deep layer of sand.