Substrate, or no substrate?

[johnnymax]

I have always had substrate in my tanks. ALWAYS!
I have never even considered setting up a tank without substrate. But, I have been enjoying looking at all members tank setups. I notice quit a few tanks with no substrate. I have moved into our new home over the weekend and so far I just have water in my take.
Please post reasons and benefits if any for not using substrate.
Thanks

 

[Rocksor]

It provides enrichment for some fish allowing them to spend their time sifting through the sand. Some like to bury themselves in it. It removes the reflection from an overhead light. You can get a colony of heterotrophic bacteria (for organic compounds) and autotrophic bacteria (ammonia / nitrite) growing in the substrate.

If you don't like cleaning substrate, then just put about 0.5'-1" in there.

 

[Fat Homer]

^ basically what the above said... unless your fish dont really need / appreciate it, in which case its purely down to personal preference...

 

[pacu mom]

Exclusively, ease of maintenance. Some of us enjoy our fish, but don't care to spend many hours a week doing tank maintenance. With strategically placed uptakes and appropriate mechanical filtration and plumbing, tank maintenance can be super easy--no debris to vacuum up, water changes done by turning valves on/off. The larger the tank, the harder tank maintenance can become with substrate. Call me lazy if you want, but I didn't want to vacuum substrate out of our smaller 8 foot tank. And there is absolutely no way I would consider substrate in our still to be set up big tank. ..I can't imagine vacuuming substrate in a 15' x 4' area four feet down from the top of the tank. By standing on the platform behind the tank, I'll be able to reach and clean the front panel and walls with an extended long handle car wash brush, but that's all I'm prepared to do.

I don't know if not wanting to do tank maintenance makes me less of a fish keeper than the next person, or makes me less "passionate", but I don't care. All that said, if the tank in the picture were my only tank, I would use substrate. I could handle vacuuming substrate in that foot print. I wouldn't plumb the tank like this


or have mechanical filtration like this to do the work for me

 

[esoxlucius]

I've had tanks with substrate in the past and when vacuuming the substrate of a well established tank and you delve your syphon head into the substrate, you just find yourself sucking up cruddy brown water. I just didn't like the idea that this hidden crud in my substrate was just making nitrate, i'd rather it be out of there completely.

That's when I decided to start going bare bottom. Bare bottom that is substrate wise, I still have bogwood and various sizes of rocks. To prevent crud from building up in dead spots between the wood and rocks I have strategically placed powerheads on timers. They periodically blow any loose stuff towards my outlet and down into my sump where filter floss takes it out. Regularly changing my filter floss means the crud is never in my system long enough to overload my nitrate. And that point alone is the number one reason I don't have substrate.

Yes, I think substrate looks better, it houses masses of BB, for planted tanks it has it's obvious benifits, and it's good for a lot of fish that root about and maybe make hollows in there for laying eggs etc.

At the end of the day though a lot of it is just personal preference. I still have all my old substrate in the shed and i'm certainly not ruling out using it again some day.

 

[Fat Homer]

Exclusively, ease of maintenance. Some of us enjoy our fish, but don't care to spend many hours a week doing tank maintenance. With strategically placed uptakes and appropriate mechanical filtration and plumbing, tank maintenance can be super easy--no debris to vacuum up, water changes done by turning valves on/off. The larger the tank, the harder tank maintenance can become with substrate. Call me lazy if you want, but I didn't want to vacuum substrate out of our smaller 8 foot tank. And there is absolutely no way I would consider substrate in our still to be set up big tank. ..I can't imagine vacuuming substrate in a 15' x 4' area four feet down from the top of the tank. By standing on the platform behind the tank, I'll be able to reach and clean the front panel and walls with an extended long handle car wash brush, but that's all I'm prepared to do.

I don't know if not wanting to do tank maintenance makes me less of a fish keeper than the next person, or makes me less "passionate", but I don't care. All that said, if the tank in the picture were my only tank, I would use substrate. I could handle vacuuming substrate in that foot print. I wouldn't plumb the tank like this
View attachment 1387623

or have mechanical filtration like this to do the work for me
View attachment 1387624

True, when a tank becomes a certain size and isnt easily accessible then one must consider how much effort they’d be willing to put on maintenance...

Although IF i had a tank large enough and easy enough for me to physically get into, i’d probably have a substrate (coz who doesnt want to swim with their fish), but something like yours that could only be cleaned the outside i agree a bare bottom would be more ideal...

 

[fishhead0103666]

Well the others have pretty much said just about everything but I’ll throw in my reasoning for going bare bottom.
I have
2x 75
2x 55
1x 29
1x 20
I shut down a 75 and a 55 plus two 5 gallons to make it take less time to maintain the tanks and because I could.
Anyway, this may be a small number of tanks but when I’m doing everything with a python and it takes roughly an hour to drain 45 gallons and the same amount of time to fill my mixing can with 45 gallons then I give it 10 minutes to mix and whatnot time adds up.
In order to do all the water changes it’ll probably take 4-6 hours as I can fill a mixing trash can as I’m pumping water into a tank. I have 2 trash cans.

I’m trying hard to figure out ways to be able to make it less effort on my end but it’s slow progress..

 

[johnnymax]

Thanks for the feedback. I think I will try bare bottom and see.
I may be asking for advice if I have issues. I want to give it a good try.
I bough an HOB filter Penguin 350
I have the air driven canister filter I made that has gravel, charcoal and bio media in it. It is already established with BB.
I will put my two wave makers in this evening and see if I can situate them to clean the bottom.
I will place a few rocks in it and a few plastic plant. I am not sure the plant will work without substrate.
We shall see.
I am keeping Mozambique Tilapia and they are messy, but they love to sift through the substrate.
I had an issue with brown algae on everything, so I can try everything recommended here to avoid it.
It will be easier to deal with without substrate.
But if I like bare bottom, I just may stay with it. I do like the mirror look.

 

[pacu mom]

Thanks for the feedback. I think I will try bare bottom and see.
I may be asking for advice if I have issues. I want to give it a good try.
I bough an HOB filter Penguin 350
I have the air driven canister filter I made that has gravel, charcoal and bio media in it. It is already established with BB.
I will put my two wave makers in this evening and see if I can situate them to clean the bottom.
I will place a few rocks in it and a few plastic plant. I am not sure the plant will work without substrate.
We shall see.
I am keeping Mozambique Tilapia and they are messy, but they love to sift through the substrate.
I had an issue with brown algae on everything, so I can try everything recommended here to avoid it.
It will be easier to deal with without substrate.
But if I like bare bottom, I just may stay with it. I do like the mirror look.

Extend the uptakes of your filters to just off the floor. If strategically placed, the uptakes will pick up debris from off the floor.

 

[johnnymax]

Extend the uptakes of your filters to just off the floor. If strategically placed, the uptakes will pick up debris from off the floor.

I thought about that, but not sure where to get the extension pipe....