Substrate or not?

    Most reef keepers tend to not keep any substrate in their tank and keep it bare. Sometimes this allows aquarists to grow polyps on the bottom or just plain coralline algae to cover the surface. Many believe that substrate for reef tanks is bad because it is a trap for detritus making the water dirty over a period of time. A power head is also placed onto the bottom of the tank so that detritus can be put back into suspension and eventually caught by the filters. However many say that substrate is a must in an aquarium.

    Substrate is important in a tank because it is a large biological source of filtration in a tank allowing bacteria and small microbes, worms, and other living things to dwell in the sand and break down waste created in the aquarium. Also, some people prefer sand because some fish such as jaw fish and blenny's are sand sifters and require it or else they usually die. Those are the main reasons of keeping or not keeping substrate in a tank. Many people take the substrate route; however, some people do not and those people are usually reef keepers.