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

[ReQuackulous]

I currently have a 125 gallon bare bottom and will eventually add soft corals and have GSP to cover the bottom. I have seen tanks like this and I feel that it would be great having a grass bottom instead of sand. I used to have a sand bottom and my tank crashed and I said never again and I really love the clean look that the bare bottom offers.

I have a portion of bottom with GSP and unfortunately in my case, GSPs mat is perfect at collecting detritus xp

 

[Shooter6]

I've run the following in my time keeping reefs and have a point or two to make.
Crushed coral
Argonne
Deep sandbed (8inch)
Thin sandbed (1/4inch)
Regular sandbed (1-3inch)
Barebottom.
My current build, a 1200gal system will have both, a 400g with no sandbed, a 320gal with a thin sandbed and a 200gal'ish (cube) with a 1-3inch sandbed. I also plan to suspend a mesh box in the sump with sand in it after all the mechanical/biological filtration.

I see some people stating the natural look of sandbed or that it's not a real reef without sand.
I want to point out that the sandbed on most reefs are way below the reef. The reef is coral and rock with sand 10-40 meters below the reef top. So unless you have a 2 story tall reef, the sand is actually an unnatural look.

I believe there's benefits to both, on my 400g the bottom will be covered by chalice like the jellybean and raja rampage ect. Possibly some zoa patches or other such soft corals. Currently I've got about 150 acro frags on travertine tile pieces growing along with both those chalice and some high end monti frags.

Just because it's bare bottom doesn't mean it needs to be bare. Acro colonies along the bottom looks pretty awesome and mimics the top of the great barrier reef!

 

[ReefCheef]

Sand for show, BB for dough.

 

[ClownWrangler]

So unless you have a 2 story tall reef, the sand is actually an unnatural look.

Challenge accepted. Lol

I think the "natural look" idea in itself is not practical. I like to think of a reef tank like a Japanese garden and corals as bonsai. Definitely looks man made but still "natural" in its own right. I see it as a balance between artistic expression, nature and a healthy, balanced habitat. If you were to take a random chunk of reef the size of a reef tank and throw it in a reef tank, it would actually be pretty lame and not have much in terms of biodiversity. It would likely just be just a huge mass of one type of coral. That being said, I don't think plate corals do well without a sand bed. It just depends on what you are keeping.

 

[Kscope]

I would never. I am not having issues with my crushed coral bottom now. I just don’t like the way bare bottom looks. Are there pros/cons? Im sure there are for both.

 

[Goaway]

I like to watch the worms in the sand bed and the bugs. Maybe I'm weird.

 

[sebnuage]

I have a wrass that sleeps there…

 

[DracoKat]

My 2 current tanks has sand. it looks so much better and my fish and snails appreciate sand as it's their natural habitat.

I've done a pico tank without sand, and I think it looked okay since it was a tiny tank with lots of rock and eventually GSP took over the bottom which made it look amazing. If I ever restart the pico, I'd do bare bottom again

 

[hart24601]

Missing the selection of bare bottom and never going back!

Although great tanks can be accomplished with either.

I have always felt for sps tanks that are essentially reef crest biotopes look odd and unnatural since while there are exceptions, those areas are rock bottom, not sand.

 

[Gaspipe]

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.

Sorry, I asked my first question before seeing you wrote the answer a few times. Hopefully you see this before my first question.

What kind of scrapper do you use for the bottom?

 

[wolfthefallen]

I love the look of sand, and the fish and introverts you can get that require the sand bed I love.

I currently have a leopard wrasse, and soon I'll have a pistol shrimp and goby combo .. I've lost count of all the snails that hide in my sand bed during the day. when they come out in full force at night they almost completely cover my glass

Lessons I've learned is to use some small particle sand and then put a larger grain like 1-2mm maybe even up to 5mm depending on the flow you are going for. Then toss loos rubble down to help break up that sand tossing action.

 

[Insanereefs]

There's no sand on the barrier reef just the on the beach and the ocean floor so not really a big deal just more for looks if u like to spend $ on sand and extra time doing maintenance then go ahead

 

[PBar]

Sorry, I asked my first question before seeing you wrote the answer a few times. Hopefully you see this before my first question.

What kind of scrapper do you use for the bottom?

Hi Gaspipe,
No problem! I use this simple one.
The tank is very shallow (35 cm) so it is very easy and quick to do it.

 

[Kfactor]

I ran a bb for 2 years and loved it but in my ew build I went sand but a thin layer just like the look

 

[brandon p]

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.

Any tank's bacteria, pod population would be 50% less without it (that isn't even arguable).
Bare bottoms show EVERY speck of dirt so you'll be cleaning with more frequency, you'll be replenishing your pods with much more frequency (again, less substrate is less SUBSTRATE. It's in the definition of the word), and it also assumes that you're going coral only because there are very few animals that don't have some business with the substrate whether it be food, shelter, breeding, playing. I know my gobies, blennies, and snapper would all be pretty ticked if I took the sand out. But even in the OP's pic there's a Tang at the bottom right lookin' all forlorn about the obvious lack of sand to pick at. And they're primarily vegetarians.
Really though, how can you reccomend something that you don't do to your own tank?

 

[nursebran]

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

Wow! That’s beautiful! I really couldn’t have pictured something so nice, with no substrate. My answer, is still... “No, for me.” I do bb in my quarantine tank and that’s (probably) why I’m so against it. I hate QT’s! And, everything about quarantining. But.... I do..... everything, absolutely everything... fish, snails, crabs, rocks, coral....even, anemones... EVERYTHING!!! lol
Did I say, “it reminds me of quarantining!?” Lol
Lived and learned, when it all died... overnight. Now, I have a happy DT with healthy fish and corals (work in progress), 3 BTAs, and some other inverts ... with medium/coarse aragonite sand/crushed coral mixed for my mushrooms.
Harder to keep clean, but I like it. Reminds me of the beach/ocean!

 

[Islandvib3s]

Why not,lol I run a bare bottom in my nano jbj dx12 gallon. But if it was a tank thats sumped im sure the sump would have a bunch.

 

[ReefRondo]

A few years ago I setup my Reefer 425XL with sand and rock. After watching BRS WWC hybrid method videos decided to try bare bottom. I’d already had a few disasters in the tank with anemones wandering into my gyres etc so decided to give bare bottom a try as the tank was almost entirely empty of livestock.The system was such a mess after the disaster bare bottom was not well timed and the tank struggled on for about 6 months with countless algae issues. I then put sand back in hoping it would stabilise it again but it was yet again a total disaster.
All I would say is in my experience make a decision at the build stage of your tank whether you are going bare bottom or not and stick to that decision.
My newest tank build is bare bottom and I know to begin with it will take longer to establish but I think the benefits of it will outweigh the aesthetics of sand.
One last reason for bare bottom for me is I am sick of scratched glass. I’m a perfectionist and any scratches drive me crazy.

 

[msjboy]

They should invent a fake sand bed material..( something like sand flocked onto a foam material and you can putty up the seams)

 

[monkeyCmonkeyDo]

Shelf rock isnt too bad on the bottom if u have enough flow...does that count?
D