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

[SPS2020]

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

Clean livin'! Two gyres on the back wall of my IM 100 EXT keep the bottom completely clean with no need to vacuum...ever. As much flow as one would like and that makes all my Acropora very happy. No need to ever worry about detritus build up in a sand bed. More space. No sand blowing around.

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

Slower cycle initially as well as getting the tank truly established. No albedo from the sand bed to reflect light to the underside of Acropora. Some say aesthetics, but I am fine with the look.

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

Currently, I have two bare bottom tanks. I've had a DSB once and didn't care for it. Later tried a shallow sand bed, but didn't really care for it either.

 

[LRT]

Bare Bottom all day everyday and from here on out.
I've packed my system with as much liverock as I could fit in which most likely helps with my shenanigans.
I do have a cpl bowls of sand in for critters and they happen to be only spot at this point that any kind of nasties want to grow other than my turf scrubbers.
Going full tiled bare bottom on new frag tank build its going to be glorious. Ive had tiles in sump for cpl months now starting to grow coraline so its on and popping.

 

[BrianAnthony]

Other:. I have run a bare bottom tank in the past. I may do it again in the future. Currently, I have a 12 gallon with sand.

Positive experience for a sand bottom: looks more natural and pleasing to the eye. Sand can harbor beneficial bacteria and gives more real estate for bacteria to grow on. This helps if you have limited rock work. A lot of saltwater animals utilize the sand bed for various reasons.

Negative experience with a sand bottom: over time, the benefits of bacteria it offers gives way to trapping waste and it becomes a nitrate factory. A bare bottom tank with properly placed wavemaker power heads pushes and keeps waste in the water column, until it is pulled into your filter. It always seems that no matter how much I vacuum the sand, I never am able to remove all of the waste.

Conclusion for me:. If I need perfect water conditions in my tank with the least amount of maintenance, a bare bottom tank is the way to go. Especially, if I have my tank stocked with an abundance of live rock. If I can put up with some nitrate levels and want a more natural look, sand bottom will be done.

 

[BenitaSolo]

I have 2 mixed reef tanks that are largely LPS dominant. They are 4ish and 6ish years old now. I started both tanks with 2"+ sand bed. I siphon as much of the sand bed as I can every week. Weekly cleaning and issues with dinos has really thinned the fines out of the bed and made the sand sparse in general.
One of the tanks is 25% bare bottom with a thin dusting up to 1" on the rest of it.
The other tank has a sand bed of 1/2"-1-1/4".
All of that said, I will try bare bottom next time. I might also consider slowly removing the rest of the sand from my partially bare bottomed tank... seems to be easier to maintain.

Edit- I also really like the look of lining the bottom of the tank in frag tiles. Easy to replace if necessary and it gives a place for corals to encrust

 

[Pookymama]

I am still relatively new to reefing, did not know that no sand was actually an option. I think it would be easier to clean without but I love the way my tank looks with white sand.

 

[IKD]

Hello!
Using bare bottom for the first time over an year now.
Hard to come back to sand… very easy to maintain and best advantage is in terms of circulation.

However, I have to be honest… I still miss the sand… it is not the best visually.

Wow, how do you keep the bottom so crystal clean? I would imagine corraline algae would grow there eventually right? Do you clean it daily?

 

[Karen00]

The only reason why I would do a BB in a fw tank, is if I was breeding fish. But that's pretty much the only exception.

I like my tanks to look as natural as possible.

Totally agree. In some cases a bb tank totally makes sense!

 

[rtparty]

They both have their pros and cons. However, it is a DISPLAY tank and sand looks way better. My current display has no sand and I have never loved the look. The upgrade will have sand for sure and I will deal with its negatives as they come.

 

[mattdg]

It is many times harder to start a bare bottom system, but I have had success with it in the past. Once established, they are pretty set and forget, but do have their problems such as encrusting coral moving from glass to reef rock, given there is no barrier to keep them from doing so. I now run a bare bottom frag / grow out and course gravel in my 120 gallon display. I'd say they are exactly equal, in the amount of time it takes to keep them looking nice. A 2" layer of course gravel is pretty easy to maintain in a high flow SPS system. I plan on running it this way, as long as possible.

 

[Haydn]

I believe sand on the bottom not only looks better but it creates a habitat for critters both added like Cerianthus, cucumbers, and shrimp/goby pairs and hitchhikers like worms, snails and pods.

 

[DH78]

1. You can crank the flow and not create sandstorms. No sand cleaning. ability to direct flow anywhere to eliminate detritus traps.
2. In my experience, bare bottoms take longer to gain stability and simply don't look as good as a tank with sand.
3. I ran my current tank bare bottom for the first year, but I just never was happy with the aesthetics. I put sand in because I like the way a tank looks with sand.

 

[sp1187]

never seen a reef with a glass bottom on any reef I dove.
not a reef tank without it.
a glass box with corals.
ok.... fire away.

 

[ShawnSaucier]

I’ve been considering this with my new build. But I also want to keep wrasses and think a bowl with sand would look silly. I’m wondering about throwing only a bag or two in the tank and doing a half n half. Anyone done this??

 

[NashobaTek]

Nope, I prefer the look of the sand and the critters who play in the sand. BB is un- natural looking. Cuc does a good job with my help keeping the sand clean.

 

[rhildinger]

I’ve been considering this with my new build. But I also want to keep wrasses and think a bowl with sand would look silly. I’m wondering about throwing only a bag or two in the tank and doing a half n half. Anyone done this??

I haven't tried that, but I think I'm safe in saying that if you did it wouldn't be half and half for long without some sort of barrier between the two halves...

 

[PBar]

Wow, how do you keep the bottom so crystal clean? I would imagine corraline algae would grow there eventually right? Do you clean it daily?

Dear IKD,
in summary it is a dry rock and ULN tank, so I don’t have a single coralline algae so far
As such, once a week I clean the glass and the bottom.

 

[CoastieFlo]

If anyone here wants to make their sandbed tank instantly bare bottom and with no recycling, holla, we can do that job live time here. Our reef tanks dont need a single thing found in sandbeds…they’re merely extra bioload our tanks tolerate. Specifically, you do not need any of the bacteria from a reef sandbed as a critical filtration link it’s fully uncritical and expendable in all systems.

if you want to change your whole sandbed out for a new one we can do that too, all in one pass.


that being said I keep a very deep sandbed bc I like the looks. Owing to the rule above I just deep clean or replace it occasionally to keep it tidy.

If anyone here wants to make their sandbed tank instantly bare bottom and with no recycling, holla, we can do that job live time here. Our reef tanks dont need a single thing found in sandbeds…they’re merely extra bioload our tanks tolerate. Specifically, you do not need any of the bacteria from a reef sandbed as a critical filtration link it’s fully uncritical and expendable in all systems.

if you want to change your whole sandbed out for a new one we can do that too, all in one pass.


that being said I keep a very deep sandbed bc I like the looks. Owing to the rule above I just deep clean or replace it occasionally to keep it tidy.

That brings into more question as a new reefer, if you have plenty of rock and means of handling bioload why are there people who shun vacuuming my sand bed when there are plenty of successful bare bottom tanks out there.

 

[Ef4life]

Meet in the middle - sand color looks when new, bare bottom maintenance, and being natural stone will become saturated with bacteria eventually like our rocks.

travertine

 

[Waters]

I have started multiple tanks with sand and always end up removing it within a year. The only benefit sand offers in my opinion is looks (unless you have critters that need sand obviously). Every time I remove my sand, my ALK consumption drops way down (no more sand turning to concrete), tank is cleaner, flow is higher, coral is happier Glass bottom just give me another place to put encrusting coral.

 

[M Stein]

I have zero experience with bare bottom but I would try it.
My aesthetic goal would be to have SPS growing on the rock, and encrusting LPS on the bottom and back. There would be a few utilitarian fish, but the main focus would be the coral garden.