I don't mind the look of bare bottom as long as there's rocks and dw in there. I use pfs in all my tanks, but I typically just have a scant layer of it.
kno4te I actually took the sand out before this picture was taken my arowana would get a mouth full of sand when eating shrimp that snaked to the bottom.
xraycer this was an after pic of the water change you can still see a little bit of the sand on the bottom can't siphon it out completely
I didn't realize that tank is in a nice living space. In that case, you should really set that tank up a lot nicer. Put the sand back in, add a background, and hide all those equipment in the tank as best you can.
like I said my arowana would get a mouth full of sand when he picks up shrimp from the bottom and spit out his food imo I think it's hard to maintain if anything I'll add a little bit of sand around and underneath the log and rocks...as for the background I'm thinking a simple black sheet.