Bare bottom VS sand bed

[Basile]

Their's all king of reason to do both these options. And their's reason to change back depending on what you've started with.

So tell us your reasons and what advantages you find in it.

 

[chipmunkofdoom2]

I'm probably throwing off the average, I'm running bare bottom in my 20g long. Personally I like the look of sand better than BB, and when I get my 40b up and running, I might use sand. But there are definite advantages of bare bottom. First, no worrying about flow blowing sand around when trying to tweak flow. Second, there's no nutrient or detritus trap that you constantly have to clean and maintain. Third, although this is a more rare event, if you ever swap tanks, you don't have to worry about disturbing the sand and moving the sand bed.

If you've never tried it before, I say go for it. You can always add sand a little at a time later if you don't like it. If the tank is bare bottom from the start, it will look less weird; you'll get used to the tank with no sand bed and it will look normal after a while.

 

[DaveK]

I use a fairly shallow sanded about 1 1/2 inches. However, I wouldn't call someone that used more or less or bare bottom wrong. You really can't go too far wrong here. I have used just about all the various combos over the years.

 

[Florida Sunshine]

I've never had a BB tank but I can see the advantages. I have switched from crushed coral to a DSB to just a sand bed. The crushed coral was a mess and I didn't like the look of the DSB after a couple of years. I would have left it, but when I moved the tank I took about 1/2 the sand out and I like that much better.