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

[BrianAnthony]

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.

I like your antagonistic approach. Lol. I've had bb and kinda agree. A thought just came to mind... I wonder what affects if any are there when there is no sand and the lights are running full blast reflecting off the bottom. I know there is such a thing as too much light.

 

[DeniseAndy]

My main tank is sand as is my traveling tank. I like the look of the lagoon style with islands and such, so sand is sort of necessary. Plus I love the sand creatures too much to go without.
Now my grow-out/qt tanks are bare bottom for ease of cleaning.

Both have advantages and disadvantages. Depends on maintenance and corals/animals you keep. I personally prefer sand.

 

[SauceyReef]

Personally I am not sure what the rage is about bare bottom. It looks entirely unnatural to me. My friend went bare bottom. We both agreed it requires more maintenance if you want to keep the bottom clean. You have to siphon the detritus out often in little spots it builds up. While my pistol shrimp + goby keep my sand bed white with 0 energy on my part.

 

[Galvano]

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

[...] No albedo from the sand bed to reflect light to the underside of Acropora. [...]

Wouldn't silver paint on the bottom glass or a sheet of aluminum foil below the tank give you a similar result, at least as long as nothing's growing there?

BTW, doing without sand for more than 30 years now, I'm currently cycling a 30 gal BB concrete 'rock' AIO SW cube. My 250 gal Lake Victoria tank is completely lined with concrete, so strictly speaking not a BB tank. And there's a 30 gal Lake Victoria catfish cube furnished with a multitude of concrete caves. Easy to keep clean with no chance of dirt accumulating anywhere but in the filter unit. Better safe lazy than sorry.

 

[ShawnSaucier]

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...

I think once it’s settled, where ever the flow pushes the sand. That’s where it will be. And as the tank matures and whatever I decide to grow on the bare bottom will act as little barrier islands, theoretically… lol. Or not…

 

[sp1187]

I like your antagonistic approach. Lol. I've had bb and kinda agree. A thought just came to mind... I wonder what affects if any are there when there is no sand and the lights are running full blast reflecting off the bottom. I know there is such a thing as too much light.

lol.... me??? antagonistic? not this time.
I'm already on double secret probation.
to each their own. just don't seem very "reefy" to me.

 

[BiggestE222]

There are generally two ways to maintain a reef tank as far as the substrates are concerned. You can either use some type of sand or you can use no sand and go bare bottom. Which is actually no substrate at all! We talked about sand the other day so today let's talk about bare bottom and the advantages and disadvantages of it.

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

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

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

bare bottom tank image via @irwin_fletch

I have sand and it gets blown away from one edge and piles up on the other side Kinda looks like a beach setting. I love sand and might get a pair of leopard wrasses one day.

 

[burningmime]

I'm weird in that I *prefer* the look of bare bottom. If you take a random slice of an ocean reef, most likely it won't be at the bottom; it'll be somewhere near the middle. With the right aquascape and by hiding the top and bottom, you can make it look like you're peering into an ocean world instead of an aquarium.

 

[BrianAnthony]

Everyone on here makes pretty good arguments for and against bare bottom tanks. It seems to me that the tank mfgs should come up with a solution. Perhaps selling a tank sold as bare bottom and have a sand looking material mounted on the bottom for instance.

 

[Reefer Reboot]

I voted other. This current tank is the first one that I tried bare bottom with. As mentioned about in a couple of earlier post, I tried a reflective bottom by putting mylar sheeting under the tank just to see what would happen. It may be my imagination but it looked to me that it did help the undersides of a green slimmer that had been positioned to extend sideways out over the bare bottom. But that experiment didn't last long as the coralline quickly covered the bottom. Then I put some GSP on the bottom which it is now completely covered in. So not sand but not really bare either.

 

[AntFarm]

I like the look of the sand. I also like the various sand sifting creatures.

 

[ReefHomieJon]

I have 2 tanks, one is bare bottom and the other has Fiji pink sand. Both are SPS dominant.

1. The ability to crank the flow up and remove detritus is a big plus. The sandbed in my one tank has a bunch of pits in it due to the high flow.

2. The lack of biodiversity that comes with the absence of a sand bed is definitely a concern of mine.

Maybe could compensate with a big sand bed in the sump(?)

 

[Calm Blue Ocean]

Part of me would love to go without sand. Sand is a pain to keep clean and it blows and shifts around. It's likely part of my insane nutrient levels. But I like my pistol shrimp and Halichoeres wrasse too much. Even though they often make the sand problems even worse with the shrimp going on remodeling tours of the tank and the wrasse spitting sand all over my montis. There are always tradeoffs.

 

[DaveRaz]

Yes! So much more room for corals. The bottom will be covered and

encrusted soon!

 

[ou12004]

I have a bare coral bottom. Just about every inch of tank bottom is used for Zoas and other corals. You can’t even tell there is no sand.

 

[Calm Blue Ocean]

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.

How do you keep the bottom looking so pristine? This is actually super pleasing to look at.

 

[PBar]

Dear CalmBlueOcean,
in summary it is a dry rock and ULN tank, next to that I don’t have a any coralline algae.
Once a week I clean the glass and the bottom
Maybe an extra important remark, I have extremely strong flow in the bottom of the tank as well.
Cheers

 

[Badnade]

1. As much flow as you want/corals need. No more cleaning or maintenance of the sandbed.

2. Can limit livestock choices for the tank. Doesn't look as good to some as a sandbed.

3. I run bare bottom now. I like the look of it plus you can let encrusting corals take over the bottom glass.

 

[Robert Riccio]

The ocean isn't a bare bottom, so neither am I. But some of the fish I really like require a sand bed, so I don't think I could ever do a bare bottom.

 

[ClownWrangler]

Wouldn't silver paint on the bottom glass or a sheet of aluminum foil below the tank give you a similar result, at least as long as nothing's growing there?

BTW, doing without sand for more than 30 years now, I'm currently cycling a 30 gal BB concrete 'rock' AIO SW cube. My 250 gal Lake Victoria tank is completely lined with concrete, so strictly speaking not a BB tank. And there's a 30 gal Lake Victoria catfish cube furnished with a multitude of concrete caves. Easy to keep clean with no chance of dirt accumulating anywhere but in the filter unit. Better safe lazy than sorry.

I thought about that at one point after buying some expensive black egg crate for a reef rack. Black is more expensive because its less common "specialty", whereas the white eggcrate is cheaper and more readily available and also better for maximizing PAR exposure. It just doesn't look very good. If your objective is maximum growth, I would say a reflective bottom would be most ideal. I wonder if the reflective eggcrate material is safe for saltwater. Would make an interesting reef rack if so.