Substrate or NO Substrate

While on a visit to a LFS in my area.....the owner of the store told me not to put a substrate in my tank. Should I follow his advice or is he just all wet? I'm in the process of setting up my 72bowfront. The reason he stated for not putting in a substrate, was that sand is very hard to keep clean. There are shrimp and fish that do this job for me aren't there?

 

there are folks that like bare bottom... but I don't like that look in a reef tank...

if I had to guess, I'd say 90+ percent of folks on this forum have substrate in their DT... can't be that hard

 

Yes there are:
Species Profiles of a few

 

Go with sand. It looks better.

 

Just do a thin layer of sand.. its very easy to keep clean..

dont listen to most fish store people unless you know that they know their stuff.. I had someone once ask me what color my gravel was in my reef tank.. lol

 

i do a 1 inch layer, BB IMO dont look right for a reef tank

 

Yes, you can go bare bottom. But, it's not as simple as not putting in sand.
The reason most go bare bottom has nothing to do with keeping things clean. #1 would be a SPS dominated tank and not dealing with the sand getting blown due to extremely high flow. The second would be to avoid the dreaded "old tank syndrome".
But, sand is a huge part of your biological filtration. If you go no sand, you have to make up for it. This can include a lot more rock than usual, giant skimmer, etc.
Keeping sand is easy. Yes, there are a large amount of critters that will do it for you. Visiting ReefCleaners.org | Clean Up Crews and Macro Algae - Home will give you a good idea on that. Other ways are a simple gravel vacuum while doing water changes, or just getting in there and periodically sifting the top of it up a little bit yourself.
As far as dirty, there is no reason for it to get that dirty in a healthy, normally maintained and operated environment. Sounds like you might consider getting advice elsewhere.

 

Thanks alot....you guys are a lot of help.....how's the tank phil?

 

Tank is doing great! I just added a clown tang so im pretty excited about that!

 

go with thin layer of sand