Substrate

[outofthewater]

We'll I've been doing some reading on reefcentral and was wondering what you guys were thinking about substrate... I'm going for an sps tAnk with some lps and was wondering what you guys have had success with.
Crushed coral with sand
Just sand
Just crushed coral
Just bought two wp-15 so there will be lots of flow Nd don't want a sand storm

 

[Sewerat]

I found sand stirred up way to easy, flow from only one korallia 4 made it into milk in about an hour. I use the crushed coral and the sand went into the refugium

 

[bart84]

I use eragonite. It works well until my bullethead sifts above my rocks.

 

[AdInfinitum]

Aragonite sand (not the sugar fine stuff), seafloor special grade and some "Bahamas Bottom" which is chunky stuff don't know what name it goes by these
days...

 

[Jewel]

Mid size Argonite, Its what ever you find appealing, sugar size will blow all over the tank in high flow,

 

[jeffopentax]

I use caribsea super naturals sand. Stays put unless you have a powerhead 16" away pointed directly at it. Even then it stays on the bottom of tank.

 

[Aquariums by Design]

I can tell you that Caribsea Special Grade Aragonite outsells any other type of reef substrate at least 10 to 1 and seems to be the obvious choice for most reef hobbyists.
We use it in all our reef set-ups and have been for many years. Crushed coral is much larger and traps debris that can cause Nitrate and phosphate issues. Aragonite's buffering capacity is also better than crushed corals.
I think the finer sands pack to tightly and tend to get blown all over the place where is special grade seems to be the perfect size, not too large and not too small.
A lot of SPS guys like to run no sand at all on the bottom just to keep even more pristine conditions but obviously this doesn't look as appealing.

 

[onecansay]

Bare bottom does have it's advantages regarding parameters. I for one run bare. LOL.

There is a trade off when it comes to stability. Some have great success using substrate and kudos to all that have the ability in achieving the stability.

I find that as I have my LR stood off the bottom with acrylic tubing, flow is generated throughout the system.

I have had a dead crab rotting on the bottom for over two weeks and no spikes whatsoever.

Not sure if this would happen with substrate.

Know your tank personality as they say.

Personally I would not go back to substrate, even in the sump.

Thanks,

onecansay.

 

[outofthewater]

I'm leaning towards barebottom as I've been reading more and more those of you who do I have a huge sump with lots of room
What about keeping a 2-3" sand bed in one of the there chambers

 

[AdInfinitum]

With a mature sand bed full of fauna , anything that dies is consumed by the next morning, never has a chance to rot.