Bare bottom tank turning marbles dark?

[j-lor]

Ok, so I'm thinking of going bare bottom tank with a white bottom and wondering will bare bottom make my marbles go dark and ruin patterns? Any negative effects? Thx for any infos.

 

[MEDHBSI]

I put white styro under my bare bottom tank. My rays seemed much lighter because of it and you couldn't see it was white unless you looked from the top

 

[moosemj]

They absolutely change with the tank substrate. I don't think the bare bottom would do it though.

 

[reefman]

Well it depends if it seems dark they will change. When I changed over to titan moon sand when I had rays my marble seemed to loose all his marbling

 

[SHARK13]

They absolutely change with the tank substrate. I don't think the bare bottom would do it though.

Bare bottom definitely has a negative effect on marble patterns from my personal experience, and from what I have seen in a few other instances. Bare bottom with white under the tank is a whole nother story. It also greatly depends on your background color.

 

[SHARK13]

I guess I should have specified bare bottom clear tank.

 

[j-lor]

Thanks everyone.

 

[reefman]

Check this out. This is the same ray. I had natural gravel in my tank when I got him and after a year I changed it to black. You can see the change. In the pic looks like a grade a marble in the video looks like a plain motoro with slight marbling. So if you want to keep it light but still "barebottom" why not light color tiles.

 

[reefman]

Check this out. This is the same ray. I had natural gravel in my tank when I got him and after a year I changed it to black. You can see the change. In the pic looks like a grade a marble in the video looks like a plain motoro with slight marbling. So if you want to keep it light but still "barebottom" why not light color tiles.

View attachment 1221120

Actually both rays in that pic are in that video. They both got darker.

 

[Hendre]

My African knife fish darkened over a bare bottom tank, and were lighter on light gravel. I think the substrate colour will change the looks of them