Bare bottom or not?

[DeepBlueDon]

Hello everyone!, I have a 150 bare bottom. I've heard horror stories with sand. Just wondering if live rock broken into much smaller pieces would make an alternative to sand. Also, if I do add sand, can I add it to an established tank? Thanks for any input.

 

[Tahoe61]

Yes you can add it to an established tank but prepare for a lot of cloudiness and rinse it throughly.
Live rock broken up into rubble will pretty much be like crushed coral, which is a major pain.
Sand in my experience is the best route unless you want complete BB. You can also cut starboard and use that.

 

[Mike J.]

Just like everything else in this hobby you'll get lots of different answers on how much sand. I have several aquariums and have gone all the differents routes on sand. IME the tank that does the best long term with less maintenance a best overall health has been one with a deep sand bed. You'll hear over 4", but I'll tell you more like 5 -6" because that 4" sandbed will be 3" in less than two years. If you do sand you want it to be 1" and under or 4" and over. In between is where you'll run into problems.

Here's a great way to add sand to your tank.

Putting Sand in an existing tank. - YouTube

 

[DeepBlueDon]

Thanks guys! By the way, what is starboard?

 

[SeahorseKeeper]

Here is a link for starboard:WEST MARINE Starboard Poly-Sheets Building Material at West Marine

 

[philr]

I currently have a bare bottom tank. Just a small amount of crushed coral, sand and some live rock on the bottom. I am also considering the addition of a sand base. Seems like anything in life there are many different ways to do something. The only solution comes to what you like. The reason I am contemplating the addition of sand is to accomodate some species of goby that I would like to keep. If I do go to the sand base I will use several breeds of sand sifter snails as well as the gobies. This will help the sand to 'breathe' and provide a better living reef. Or so the theory goes.

 

[silverado61]

I saw a great utube video about adding sand to a saltwater tank that created absolutly no clouding. I don't know how to link it so I'll just describe what he did.
He took live sand (washed) and put it in an empty water/pop bottle. He then slowly lowered it slowly (right side up) into the tank till it filled with water, brought it down to the bottom of the tank then turned it upside down and just let it drop out of the bottle, giving it a little squeeze once in a while if it clogged. As the sand dropped out of the bottle, all of the cloudiness got trapped in the bottle. After the bottle emptied he brought it back to the top of the tank (still up side down). At the top of the tank he flipped the bottle right side up and lifted it out. Absolutely ZERO cloudiness! It was amazing! If anyone can find this video and link it here I think you all would be astounded. I'll try to find it again and see if I can figure out how to link it but I doubt I'll be able to figure it out. You really gotta see this video.

 

[Trex]

Do you have any ideas of what you want to keep in the tank? Certain fish/inverts are going to require a sandbed.

 

[dendroman]

sand

Here is how i do it put sand in bottom place a piece of heavy plastic over it fill with water slowly pull plastic out but make sure you leave room for LR very lit clouding start up system walla:tongue:

 

[DeepBlueDon]

Thanks!

 

[DeepBlueDon]

I actually bought the whole set-up from a friend of mine. Originally, I had a blue hippo, a yellow, a purple and a sailfin tang. I also have a wrasse and two clowns. The hippo and the yellow died in the move. I am thinking about getting another hippo and another yellow. I also have a nephew that provides me with coral. I have a few pieces right now but would like to eventually have mostly coral. Do you think that is to many fish to have in a mostly reef tank?