Bare bottom or sand bed?

[Nova Scotian]

Hi, all. I am currently awaiting my IM Nuvo 10, and I’m thinking about how I will set it up. I like bare bottom in freshwater tanks, and I think it removes some of the problems with trapped nutrients and junk. However, I am concerned that it will affect negatively the good bacteria levels, and also may reduce the variety of CUC members I can have. I see people doing both bare bottom and sand bed, and if I have sand, it will be a thin layer…. The question is, will it be better for the tank to have sand, or it is fine to go without? I guess I mainly want to know that mini hermits, shrimp, and other inhabitants are good without a sand bed.

[PeterU]

I think it's a matter of personal preference.  Visually I prefer with sand.

 

The other thing to consider is which inhabitants you want, some might require a sand bed.

[M. Tournesol]

A fine layer of sand will cause no problem. It's above 2 inches (5 cm) that some reflection must be taken.

[Murphs_Reef]

I'm definitely a sand bed fan. Bare bottom tanks look odd to me 

[Nova Scotian]

Maybe 5 pounds of sand? The tank just arrived (after 2 days) so I am going to start a journal later!

[rough eye]

2 hours ago, Nova Scotian said:

Hi, all. I am currently awaiting my IM Nuvo 10, and I’m thinking about how I will set it up. I like bare bottom in freshwater tanks, and I think it removes some of the problems with trapped nutrients and junk. However, I am concerned that it will affect negatively the good bacteria levels, and also may reduce the variety of CUC members I can have. I see people doing both bare bottom and sand bed, and if I have sand, it will be a thin layer…. The question is, will it be better for the tank to have sand, or it is fine to go without? I guess I mainly want to know that mini hermits, shrimp, and other inhabitants are good without a sand bed.

my primary concern is making the inhabitants feel most at home, which means kind of sloppy, chaotic, and natural looking. so i don't like the idea of a bare bottom. 

[empresto]

I might also direct you to some of the BRS videos of the last couple years, such as the BRS750 and Ryan's 360 home tank build.  They were all about bare bottom from their conversations with WWC, until they tried it and found how difficult it was to get a bare bottom tank established.  Ryan went right back to sand with his home tank build...

[Nova Scotian]

Okay, I’m convinced that it would be a bad idea for me to do bare bottom… I will get some sand.

[Murphs_Reef]

3 minutes ago, Nova Scotian said:

Okay, I’m convinced that it would be a bad idea for me to do bare bottom… I will get some sand.

Good call in my view 

[Seadragon]

1 hour ago, empresto said:

I might also direct you to some of the BRS videos of the last couple years, such as the BRS750 and Ryan's 360 home tank build.  They were all about bare bottom from their conversations with WWC, until they tried it and found how difficult it was to get a bare bottom tank established.  Ryan went right back to sand with his home tank build...

Funny you mention that, I was watching a BRS video a few weeks ago where they mentioned a bare bottom tank can take like a year for the bacteria to be fully established as compared to one with sand.

 

I like 2 inches of sand myself, right now I have a mix of fine and coarse aragonite sand that’s working out perfectly for when my Goby filters the sand, copepods crawl and hide within it, spaghetti worms dance about, Nassarius snails bury within it as well as the Tiger Sand Conchs, and my Scarlet Red Hermit Crabs love picking up pieces of sand and pebbles to clean off any algae from it.  Oh yeah, my Cerith & Stocky Cerith snails tend to bury themselves in it as well.

 

Sand makes a reef tank look natural and beautiful, makes it faster for beneficial bacteria to establish, and is home to many animals as well as their area to eat from or filter.

 

I think the benefits outweigh the cons.  And I like sticking my frag plugs, barnacles & giant sea shells into the coarse sand to stay put. 🙂

[Tired]

A thin layer of sand, half an inch to an inch, will house some beneficial critters without trapping much gunk. It should stay pretty clean from a reasonable population of burrowing snails, like ceriths and dwarf ceriths, and from the worms in it. Gently stirring parts of it during water changes can be a good idea. Or get a pistol shrimp, and that'll provide some good sand shifting all on its own.

[Nova Scotian]

Hmmm… if I could do a goby/shrimp pair with a shallow sand bed, I’d like to do that! That BRS YouTube channel claims that the special grade live sand is the best…. ?

[Tired]

Nah. Just get a decently coarse sand with broken bits of shells in it for the pistol to build with. "Live sand" just means it probably has a bit of bacteria in it from being packaged in water. 

[M. Tournesol]

5 hours ago, Tired said:

Just get a decently coarse sand with broken bits of shells in it for the pistol to build with.

Like for example the "CARIBSEA Ocean Direct Original Grade"