# Bare Bottom Tank?



## sailbond (May 18, 2015)

Currently in my 5.5 gallon I have a very fine gravel for substrate. I love the appearance of it but it is difficult to keep clean. The stuff is an awkward size, it's not quite sand so stuff falls in between the little rocks and I end up sucking a bunch of the substrate up with the vacuum.

In the tank I have my betta and 1 adult mystery snail. As we know snails poop a ton and I'm finding even with vacuuming the gravel I am missing so much poop and it's just getting stirred around.

This brings me to taking out the gravel. Are there any negatives to having a bare bottom tank for the betta or snail? It would make the tank much easier to keep clean and to remove all the snail poop! Or if there is some kind of "carpet" substrate that is very easy to vacuum up debris?


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## lilnaugrim (Mar 27, 2013)

Sure, you can have a barebottom! Gravel is mostly just aesthetics until you get into live plants and then it helps anchor the plants down. But just make sure you've got enough silk plants for your Betta to hide in when he pleases ^_^

There are no carpets you can put down, you can use pieces of slate though and silicone them to the bottom if you like. Or silicone larger pieces of gravel to the bottom, it takes some work but it can look nice too if you do it right  Do no use Reptile carpets; the leach dyes.


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## sailbond (May 18, 2015)

Thanks! I'm removing the gravel today. I love the look of it but I definitely underestimated the amount that a full groen mystery snail could poop. It's going to be much easier to keep the tank clean with a bare bottom! 

They have a jungle of silk plants to hide in  I'm going to look into slate for in the future, I'll have a bunch of time come Christmas break where I can figure out a more permanent configuration for the tank.

Thanks!


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## bettaposeidon (Jun 30, 2015)

If you want to have the look of a substrate without having any (as I did, same reason as you - much easier to clean). Spray paint the outside bottom of the tank with one of those spray paints that look like rock or sand. Gives the appearance of a substrate without there actually being any.


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## sailbond (May 18, 2015)

That's a really good idea, thanks! I definitely want to find something to add some interest to the bottom. I took out the gravel but the tank looks so bare. I've ordered some more silk plants to switch things about and fill the tank in at the bottom a bit more and then I'll go from there.


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## BettaBeau (May 14, 2014)

You could cut a piece of that anti slide stuff that they sell as shelf and drawer liner or under tablecloth anchoring, it comes in colors and I've seen it in rolls next to shelf and contact paper. It has a texture so it would sort of look like gravel. I've been thinking of buying the tan one to put under my tank.


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## Mousie (Feb 16, 2015)

bettaposeidon said:


> If you want to have the look of a substrate without having any (as I did, same reason as you - much easier to clean). Spray paint the outside bottom of the tank with one of those spray paints that look like rock or sand. Gives the appearance of a substrate without there actually being any.


Plasti-Dip is a great choice for this as it's been listed as aquarium safe. An added benefit is that it can be easily peeled right off (it's the same rubbery coating on tools like pliers). This means you can change colors with ease.


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## Kim (Apr 30, 2008)

I personally love bare bottom tanks for ease of cleaning and just overall cleanliness HOWEVER, I have found throughout the years that most fish generally seem to prefer the addition of substrate to the tank. I used to just do straight bare bottom, but after countless times where a fish would visibly color up and become more active/secure in the environment after transitioning to a tank with substrate, I've come to conclude that perhaps a bare glass bottom is a problem for some fish. Now, this doesn't mean I am against bare-bottom though, just that I think we need to replicate the positive aspects of substrate into our bare-bottom design. I've done this in several ways. One was to just silicone a single layer of sand or gravel to the bottom of the tank. It still cleans just like a bare bottom tank, but the fish feel like there is a substrate. This works pretty well but isn't as durable as option 2, which is to use aquarium safe resin to pour an impermeable layer of sand/gravel onto the bottom of the tank. I used smooth-on brand and found that their clear resin worked really well to give the illusion of a sand/gravel bed without the cleaning hassle. I can't really comment on the efficacy of painting the outside of the tank base because I've never tried it. When I was researching this subject it seemed that painting the bottom was mostly for the aesthetic appeal of the fishkeeper, because the fish will still experience the glare and reflection from the glass if the paint is on the outside. That's why I opted to do the above options instead. 

Now, I do have a few tanks with substrate because they either have fish that like to dig (my Neolamprologus similis), or rooted live plants. I've found a sand/planted tank substrate is almost as easy to clean as bare-bottom. I probably wouldn't do a gravel tank again because gravel seems to be the "dirtiest" substrate of them all.

Anyway, just my 2 cents on the subject


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## sailbond (May 18, 2015)

Thanks everyone for the input! I definitely want to find something to put on the bottom, I'm not a huge fan of the appearance of the bare bottom but it's going to stay that way for now.

My betta doesn't seem to mind the glare. He spends almost all of his time at the top of the tank or inside the leaves of the big green plant so I don't think he cares too much.


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