Are you a bare bottom or sand bed reefer?

[revhtree]

Just wondering this morning about the bare bottom versus sand bed debate.

Unless I’ve missed it, I haven’t seen that much debate as of late. I see sand beds all the time but not many bare bottom tanks.

Are you a bare bottom or sand bed reefer?

image via @Roberto Denadai

 

[design.maddie]

Sand bed, and I always will be. I have done all the variations of sand bed that I can think of and between you and me, I like what I have right now the most. I have about 1cm of sand throughout the tank with some areas as shallow as a few grains of sand. Rarely see the glass though.

 

[Reefer911]

I like the clean look of a bare bottom but I like the natural look of a sand bed. So I’ll probably always do sand

 

[Murica]

Used to be bare bottom, but aesthetically I got tired of it and went to special grade.

 

[Waters]

Current tank is BB.......I like the look of sand better (when it is clean), but the ease of maintenance and higher flow means a healthier SPS tank.....for me anyways

 

[Soren]

Sand beds are certainly my preference!
The natural look, increased biological space/layers, and enjoying livestock that dig in the sand are the reasons I prefer sand.

 

[BlakeStew]

I have always had a sand bed in my tanks but I've seen more and more bare bottoms recently. I love wrasses so it would be hard for me to have a tank without sand but I have thought about setting up an SPS dominate tank in the future and by having it barebottom you can really turn up the flow.

I have been following a fellow hobbyist on Instagram and watched his tank grow and turning a masterpiece. I can't find him on Reef2Reef but his Instagram is saarbrooklyn.reef (Peter Hilt). His bare bottom tank is spectacular.

 

[Reefer911]

That does look great! I noticed CADE aquariums have a white bottom glass so that would help the aesthetics of a bare bottom I would think.

 

[vlangel]

BB have their place and I had one with my seahorses. However for a mixed reef I love the natural look of sand and that is what I have now and probably will have going forward from here.

 

[Hermie]

Sandbed but I want to remove half of it because I have too many bristleworms. I think the detritus will flow better into the sump and habitats for the worms will shrink by removing some of the sand/gravel.

 

[btmedic04]

Sand bed. I like pistol shrimp and shrimp gobies too much.

 

[Jwise]

I technically have both because my 125g Dt has a nice 4 in sand bed but my qt is bare bottom but if i was to choose i would always go with sand bed because i love how a sand bed looks however there is something cool about bare bottoms because you can do a drop off type of set up on a bare bottom and make like a trench with shelves for corals

 

[Troylee]

I have always had a sand bed in my tanks but I've seen more and more bare bottoms recently. I love wrasses so it would be hard for me to have a tank without sand but I have thought about setting up an SPS dominate tank in the future and by having it barebottom you can really turn up the flow.

I have been following a fellow hobbyist on Instagram and watched his tank grow and turning a masterpiece. I can't find him on Reef2Reef but his Instagram is saarbrooklyn.reef (Peter Hilt). His bare bottom tank is spectacular.
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That’s a beautiful tank! But man I couldn’t handle keeping the bottom that clean and scraping lol.. looks awesome thou!

 

[kutcha]

So my cube is mostly bare bottom but I made a corner of the tank with a 2 Inch sand bedding held back by part of the rock structure that way my wrasse has a place to sleep

 

[Stoney]

I've started 2 tanks bare bottom, 2 tanks with a sandbed, and the bare bottoms always take longer to get going due to all kinds of dino and bacteria blooms. One of the sandbed tanks was growing acros 3 months in. No rock either, just frag racks and a sandbed which started dry.

 

[TheReefDiary]

Sand bed simply because it means an wider variety of fish and inverts to choose some. If I was more into the corals then I would understand a bare bottom look

 

[i cant think]

Just wondering this morning about the bare bottom versus sand bed debate.

Unless I’ve missed it, I haven’t seen that much debate as of late. I see sand beds all the time but not many bare bottom tanks.

Are you a bare bottom or sand bed reefer?

image via @Roberto Denadai
View attachment 2891146

Sand bed all the way, I don’t think I could have a reef tank without my sand sleeping Wrasses. They’re way too colourful and personable plus, they’re not aggressive unlike some of the other pest hunting wrasses in the family.

 

[Aluco]

I like sand, the only thing I'm not a fan of are dunes from water currents. I do have a bare bottom 9g and it's fine, I have one large hermit in there and he struggles to walk around heh but it stays pretty clean on the bottom.

 

[EricR]

Sand bed for me, about 1.5", 'cause it looks more natural to me and some of the inverts that I like/keep enjoy it (conch/nassarius/etc).

 

[Reef-junky]

Big blind is a better spot then the small blind.