Cons:
>You loose alot of biological filtration, so your cleaning/maintence is in realtime. As in if you just allow detritus to collect, you will see algae break out quicker.
>No matter what you use on the bottom it will turn purple with corraline
>You will loose the alot of area for bugs and critters to reproduce, so less pods, worms, larvae and so on on.
>Forces you to keep a regular maintence schedule, or the detritus builds quickly.
>Looks more like a natural enviroment.
Pros:
> you can increase flow in the tank to levels you couldnt with sand substraights.
>If the flow is setup properly you can dicatate where the detritus builds for an easy removal.
>Because you have to do detritus removal constantly, you will not allow it to build up or sink in your system. Thus saving a tank altering clean up down the long term road.
>Keeps the detritus in the water column and makes it more available to corals and similar.
On the bottom the white plastic being refered to is what we know as cutting board material, usually aly place that sell acrylic sells it. Its a good idea to have as if you drop something heavy on the bottom it will protect the bottom from damaging.
On one of my tanks I took epoxy and would paint an area and then while it was still wet I would stick some sand to it. Then do that to the whole bottom of the tank. It worked well for the slipping thing, but eventually covered in corraline
Mojo
