Bare Bottom???
 

Yesterday my tank developed a small leak and fortunately for me and the fish, I was able to obtain a loaner tank. While shoveling out the DSB, I started thinking about a BB for the next tank. What are the advantages and disadvantages of going bare bottom? And what about livestock? I was thinking about getting a Mandarin one day. Will a bare bottom bother this fish? With a bare bottom, do I really need snails and crabs anymore?

No it won't bother the fish but the drawback is that you might will lose some of the biological filtering that you can benefit from the live sand

yeah i would rather have the sand bed. some people love it though/

I thought of that drawback but figure that my 70 pounds of LR will more than make up for that. (70 gallon tank)

Well, my tank was BB for a few years. It is much easier to clean, especially if you have a spray bar in the back. However, I converted to a sand bed because it just looks a lot better. You will still need a clean up crew to clean up anything that may settle in the rock and the algae. I also wouldn't be able to have my sand sifting goby without the sand bed :D.