bare bottom vs substrate

[bjorn]

hey it would be cool if you guys could post some piks of your tanks

im wanting to compare bare bottom against substrate
all my tanks have some kind of gravel down but i jus wonda what it would look like bare bottom

also u could tell me some advantages and disavtages of both

cheerz guys

 

[Kuda]

there alot of advantages to bareb bottom, i'll throw up some pics later

 

[piscavore pisces]

what i like about bare bottom is cleaning the tank is a breeze. you can vac up everything and know that you've gotten everything. a lot of people say it makes the fish more skittish but i havent really seen much difference personally.

 

[tiger125]

The big differance is that you can not have any plants to make the tank look more natural.

 

[ethnics]

i like having gravel because when to much **** flys around and has nowhere to land, the tank stays dirty. or looks crappy because you can see all the garbage sittin there. atleast in gravel it has somewhere to hide til i clean it lol

 

[danny]

gravel has bio advantages

 

[rumblesushi]

gravel has bio advantages

Danny, if you have a wet dry or a few canisters full of something like ehfisubstrat, the amount of bio provided by water very slowly passing through a gravel bed is completely insignificant.

In my experience broken down crap in the substrate leads to higher nitrates, that's why these days I have only a thin layer of sand and a few river rocks.

Even with regular cleaning you'll always get broken down waste that you can't siphon out.

 

[Kenta]

The only person who gains any advantage from BB tanks is the person who maintains it. Other than the supposedly cleaner water you get from the "better" maintenance, fish do not gain anything from BB tanks. Just my opinion.

 

[rumblesushi]

Maybe they don't lose anything either. Some fish in huge bare bottom tanks look surprisingly good. It's also a myth that fish can see their reflection, all they see is whatever is under the tank.

 

[Kuda]

i like having gravel because when to much **** flys around and has nowhere to land, the tank stays dirty. or looks crappy because you can see all the garbage sittin there. atleast in gravel it has somewhere to hide til i clean it lol

this is why when i see sh*t flying around u vac it up.....wtf