Substrate Yes or NO

[areefer01]

It is of my opinion that this is not a question about yes, or no, to substrate but rather what the hobbyist wants. The design. You can't just pick what Paul or I or Biff does because that may not work for you or your system is not designed for it. We have gone down this rabbit hole many years ago when we heatedly debated DSB's in the early 2000's.

I would be more skeptical of the LFS telling you that it is common for tanks to start developing issues after 4 years.

 

[whalewhalewhale]

Yes, but thin for me. Best of both worlds I think. You don' t have to deal with the nutrient/detritus issues that come from thicker sandbeds since it's easy to manually overturn occasionally.

 

[ChrisfromBrick]

special grade is a great choice for higher flow