Quote:
Originally posted by Marko9
...if you were going to set up a new tank, would you go BB and make a change over to the "otherside" or stay true to the natural look?
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Marky Mark,
I wish I could go bare bottom, but I can't. Being that my tank is a cube, the open space between the rock work, islands and bridges creates the most visual impact. I tried gravels (and BB) of various sorts, but only sugar sized will stay white, and a white susbstrate provides the most visual impact. I put a very thin layer on, and I am keeping a bunch of cukes and sifting stars to work the sand over. I wan't to keep it as close to sterile as possible. It's only there for looks.
Personally, I feel sand ISN'T natural in an SPS dominant reef tank. I believe most aquarists think it's natural because that's we've been brought up all these years (FW aquarists' fault).
I was curious to find out what my display tank would look like if were an actual reef setting. I dug around to find a real picture of a open rock work acro dominanted reef (someone's scuba pictures), and the only susbstrate was boulders and huge chunks of "gravel". All the sand must have ended up on the beach.
With that, my tank looks better than ever right now. Does it look natural? HECK NO, but it sure looks super sweet feng shui.
If you like the way sand looks, go for it, but I would run it BB for a little while to see how you think it jives with your rockwork. If you don't like it, adding sand is easy. I rinsed it DI and strained the water out with a net and added it one netful at a time.