Bare bottom does not mean skimmer. You are correct . Using larger particles for a sand bed would be useful . I believe my shallow sand bed ( which I never siphon as I was told not to touch it) has hit saturation. I would rather just not have any sand and siphon detritus. The advantage of a barebottom tank allows us to control the nutrient levels in our tanks to our needs. I believe it is a tool I can utilize.
Going bare bottom has the benefits of not becoming a nutrient sink and the glass bottom acts like a mirror if kept clean which bounces the light back up allowing more coral growth in a natural fashion. However, fine sand does not saturate in my experience due to micro faunal activity. Tried a regular arogonite sand many years ago and could not get the activity in the sand bed that I now get from my play sand silica bed. Never cleaned my sand in over 5 years.
You also don't need to siphon. Detritus breaks up and flows around.
Algae does not have the ULNS nutrient-pulling power that chemicals or bacterial have; algae has about the same nutrient-pulling power that corals have, because corals use algae too.
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