Your opinions, and reasoning for them are appreciated.

[helljack6]

Hey everyone!

So, I've been the happy owner of a functional reef tank since Dec 2017. When I started it, I wasn't completely sold on the fact of having to buy so much sand for a 90g DT as I really don't want that deep of a sand bed. So in my noobie wisdom, I went to my local tractor supply company store and picked up a bag of crushed coral used for chickens to help strengthen their beaks. That has been my substrate. While I understand that new reef tanks will have their ups and downs and phases as they work toward maturing, I can't help but wonder if maybe I am at a point where I should start considering whether or not to swap out the crushed coral for 40lbs of live sand, or go directly to bare bottom.... I'd like to hear personal experiences of those who have any type of substrate or no substrate at all, and why you chose that route. Thanks in advance!

 

[Justfebreezeit]

I prefer bare bottom. I switched 3-4 months ago from sand and at this point I cant imagine doing anything else.

It makes nutrient reduction a joke, the benefit of this is not having to worry about gfo or anything like that.
It makes maintenance a joke, obvious benefit
It makes having maximum flow a non issue

The only pro to sand is the look imo.

 

[helljack6]

I prefer bare bottom. I switched 3-4 months ago from sand and at this point I cant imagine doing anything else.

It makes nutrient reduction a joke, the benefit of this is not having to worry about gfo or anything like that.
It makes maintenance a joke, obvious benefit
It makes having maximum flow a non issue

The only pro to sand is the look imo.

did you do it all in one move? or over a few days?

 

[Justfebreezeit]

did you do it all in one move? or over a few days?

I bought a house and moved the tank, I didn't put the sand back in when I did. So yeah one move. I have a decent amount of live rock and marine pure in my sump to handle the bio load.

If you are worried about it I would remove 1/4 of a month till its gone.

 

[roberthu526]

I prefer an inch of sand. It helps keep hiding the debris. I know bare bottom is easier to clean but if you don’t clean often, the detritus piles up quickly. I have a bare bottom 40 breeder as QT and it doesn’t matter how small the fish is, the dirty stuff builds up quickly.

I also like the look of sand. A smooth bottom feel weird to me.

 

[Justfebreezeit]

I prefer an inch of sand. It helps keep hiding the debris. I know bare bottom is easier to clean but if you don’t clean often, the detritus piles up quickly. I have a bare bottom 40 breeder as QT and it doesn’t matter how small the fish is, the dirty stuff builds up quickly.

I also like the look of sand. A smooth bottom feel weird to me.

Sand definitely helps hide debris, I siphon the bottom out twice a month during water changes. That being said it really only accumulates in a dead flow spot I have in between two rock structures.

 

[madweazl]

I prefer bare bottom. I switched 3-4 months ago from sand and at this point I cant imagine doing anything else.

It makes nutrient reduction a joke, the benefit of this is not having to worry about gfo or anything like that.
It makes maintenance a joke, obvious benefit
It makes having maximum flow a non issue

The only pro to sand is the look imo.

I've had a substrate for 20+ years, never used GFO (or any other chemical or mechanical filtration for nutrients)...

If you don't want sand, that is fine but don't think of it as some magic bullet to success.

 

[saltyfilmfolks]

The sand we generally use in reef tanks is aragonite.
Crushed coral.

 

[DesertReefT4r]

I have done the bare bottom thing in the past and was not happy with it for a few reasons. 1 I could not keep the bottom clean, I had pretty good flow but ditritus still build up and I hated syphoning it out every couple of days. 2 it made the tank look much darker with no white sand helping to reflect light back up, I used a 1/2" thick acrylic sheet to line the bottom of the tank to protect the glass from the rock, hide the glass bottom and keep light from shining into the sump. 3 I had a harder time controlling nutrients due to the build up of ditritus and nkt having live sand to break it down before algae coukd use it ro fuel growth. I went back to a sand sand bed and have no intention on doing a BB tank any time soon. This is just my experiences as I went BB after researching and reading that it helped keep nutrients in check and the tank cleaner and my experience was the opposite.