Tank upgrade, Sand or Bare bottom?

[Liquid361]

I’m in the early stages of setting my CADE 2100 S2. I couldn’t decide either, but decided to try the live sand sold by TBS. I have a 150lbs in base rock and 120lbs of sand arriving this Tuesday. I’m pretty anxious to see how it goes.

 

[Liquid361]

wondering how a 1” layer of tampa bay saltwater sand would look. Anyone have pics of it? Want a natural look

I have 120lbs of sand from TBS arriving Tuesday. Nervous.

 

[winxp_man]

What about Carib sea Fiji pink, I heard they look good and might not be all that bad blowing around if I tweak the flow.



What sort of maintenance goes with barebottom ? Do you let the coralline encrust ?

Also does it limit your copepod population?

Fiji pink. Have the power head mid point between 20” of water. 60x24x24 tank. MP40 Power head is running at 4 bars right just because my nems don’t like higher flow. No sand blowing around. Also depends on your rock structure. Sorry for the blue late and lights are turning off. Just a reference pic to understand my dimensions.


Edit: literally just ran the MP40 at 100% and only loose debris was flying around off of rocks.

Here some filtered pics…. I have a few more nems on the other side.

 

[vlangel]

Fiji pink. Have the power head mid point between 20” of water. 60x24x24 tank. MP40 Power head is running at 4 bars right just because my nems don’t like higher flow. No sand blowing around. Also depends on your rock structure. Sorry for the blue late and lights are turning off. Just a reference pic to understand my dimensions.


Edit: literally just ran the MP40 at 100% and only loose debris was flying around off of rocks.

Here some filtered pics…. I have a few more nems on the other side.

Cool tank, BTW!

 

[Raphael Dalmeida]

Fiji pink. Have the power head mid point between 20” of water. 60x24x24 tank. MP40 Power head is running at 4 bars right just because my nems don’t like higher flow. No sand blowing around. Also depends on your rock structure. Sorry for the blue late and lights are turning off. Just a reference pic to understand my dimensions.


Edit: literally just ran the MP40 at 100% and only loose debris was flying around off of rocks.

Here some filtered pics…. I have a few more nems on the other side.

I have heaps of SPS bad love a super high flow tank.

Though nice ta K you got. That angel is beautiful.

 

[officialreefbros]

Another alternative is reactor media! You can get high flow like barebottom, but a lot of extra surface area and hides hermitcrabs!

 

[Science/G]

I had seahorses and they do best without sand. I painted the outside of the bottom of the tank with a sand texture paint. I never really warmed up to the look of bb as it was too pristine for my liking and detritus looked like a sore thumb as it built up. I added real sand when I didn't have seahorses anymore and have never looked back.

I love that look. I went with a beige acrylic sheet siliconed inside.