The advantages and disadvantages of a bare bottom tank. Would you go BB?

[Cory]

Sand looks awesome but all the fish poo it collects and dirt made me use a bare bottom tank. My sea urchins are constantly creating a new sand bed. Weekly i get 1/2 a cup of sand from them and probably the other calcified things like spirid worms.

Bb doesnt solve nutrient issues. I still have a refugium with a 165w red leds filled with chaeto, ulva lactuca, ulva intestinalis. I still use a big beckett skimmer which pulls 1 to 2 gallons of dark skimmate a week. Despite having a bb tank with all this no3 varies between 5ppm to 100ppm. Po4 varies between .05ppm and .65ppm. So really if the goal was for nutrient reduction bare bottom doesnt solve it. My next build will use sand for this reason lol. If it doesnt work i can suck it out.

 

[Operation Philo Beddoe]

Going BB, actually contemplating lining the bottom with Oceans Wonders frag tiles. My Red Sea 170 is a successful BB. Once the coralline covers everything it’s beautiful. I’m going to do Bizzaro or Rainbow Madness cyphastrea on the bottom, probably both

 

[schooncw]

I have a 125 gallon BB and I love it. My plan is to put Zoas and mushrooms on the bottom, have GSP on the back wall and then have other soft corals on my rock work. I have no issues with algae and it is so easy to keep clean.

You just described my 120 softie tank. I maintain some substrate at the very left of the tank.

 

[sam.veilleux30]

1. What are the advantages of having a bare bottom reef tank?

I feel as though I don't fight as much algae, I've yet to get cyano or anything typically that you get with "sandies"

2. What are the disadvantages of having a bare bottom reef tank?

detritus for days. I vacuum into a sock in the sump but it piles up quick. I've turned up the flow as much as I'm comfortable doing so.

3. How many of you run your tank bare bottom and how many of you used to but switched back to sand and why?

2 tanks running, 1 bb, 1 sand.

Love your profile picture
Do you still have it?
Got one this summer, so fun to watch.

 

[kccfarm]

my question is on bb do yall run a deep sandbed in the sump or refugium

 

[Brynoe77]

Is the ocean bare bottom? No. Sand bed is needed if truly trying to create a reef system akin to a natural environment with all the biodiversity.

The reef in the ocean is not on the floor aka sand bed. The reef is way above and some corals are not tolerate to sand

 

[hart24601]

The reef in the ocean is not on the floor aka sand bed. The reef is way above and some corals are not tolerate to sand

Right, especially the reef crest which is the biotope many sps keepers wish to create. Rock bottom (well centuries of coral skeleton rock bottom).