Bare Bottom Tank Transfer

michealprater · Sep 19, 2023

So I see a ton of information here talking about tank transfers and long arguments on whether to rinse sand or not... I don't care about sand. In 23 years of keeping reefs, I have found no true benefit to sand other than keeping creatures that need sand obviously. Sand gets dirty and nasty, and whether people want to admit it or not, it is typically the eyesore in some rather beautiful reefs. Any way, I will get off my soap box. I will be transferring a 40 breeder system into a 65 gallon system. I was thinking of just moving all the water from one system to the next, using all the existing rock, topping off the additional 25 gallons with fresh saltwater and then over the next couple months adding one small piece of dry rock to the aquascape at a time until I get the rock quantity up to the optimal amount for a larger tank. I dont see how that would be much different than a large water change. I have a mixed reef, softies, LPS, and SPS. With a light bioload as far as fish are concerned. Am I over simplifying this? Please poke holes in my theory. Remember, bare bottom to bare bottom, no sand in the equation what so ever.

Mr. Mojo Rising · Sep 19, 2023

Its a good plan. I've done it myself (with the added trouble of cleaning the sand), but it works exactly like you think it will. Good luck.

michealprater · Sep 19, 2023

Mr. Mojo Rising said:
Its a good plan. I've done it myself (with the added trouble of cleaning the sand), but it works exactly like you think it will. Good luck.

Any issues with adding a piece of dry rock here and there directly to the display?

Waboss · Sep 19, 2023

I've done that exact method more times that I like to admit (use to move a lot). It should work just fine. I didn't add a little rock at a time though, if I was adding rock, I'd just add it all at once, add a bottle of the "bacteria of the day" to supposedly help out and off it went. Worst I ever had was some ugly stage on the new rock, which goes away after a few weeks or a month or so.

Mr. Mojo Rising · Sep 19, 2023

michealprater said:
Any issues with adding a piece of dry rock here and there directly to the display?

no, I would do as you say, a couple of pieces every few months, but keep in mind they will be algae magnets for a little while.

What I usually do is just cycle the new rocks in a bucket or something with bacteria and a pinch of flakes, and a powerhead and heater, after a month or so when they are cycled I add them all at once.

00W · Sep 19, 2023

I would do it and have done it the same way every time.
I've been barebottom for ever and your post is solid.
No worries adding a little dry rock at a time won't hurt anything.

vetteguy53081 · Sep 19, 2023

michealprater said:
So I see a ton of information here talking about tank transfers and long arguments on whether to rinse sand or not... I don't care about sand. In 23 years of keeping reefs, I have found no true benefit to sand other than keeping creatures that need sand obviously. Sand gets dirty and nasty, and whether people want to admit it or not, it is typically the eyesore in some rather beautiful reefs. Any way, I will get off my soap box. I will be transferring a 40 breeder system into a 65 gallon system. I was thinking of just moving all the water from one system to the next, using all the existing rock, topping off the additional 25 gallons with fresh saltwater and then over the next couple months adding one small piece of dry rock to the aquascape at a time until I get the rock quantity up to the optimal amount for a larger tank. I dont see how that would be much different than a large water change. I have a mixed reef, softies, LPS, and SPS. With a light bioload as far as fish are concerned. Am I over simplifying this? Please poke holes in my theory. Remember, bare bottom to bare bottom, no sand in the equation what so ever.

Ive run bare bottom and the tank thrived just as well as tank with sand and was actually less messy and only drawback was light leaking trough the bottom of my tank from algae scrubber and sump light then I attached black construction paper to bock light and it worked

jkcoral · Sep 19, 2023

I’ve done a transfer like this, the most recent back in April moving my 30g into an 80g.

You’ll be good! I did the same thing with transferring all of the tank water into the new setup. I did take a few steps just to be extra cautious though. I added some additional ceramic/bio media to the existing tank just to get it started seeding for a week or two. And I also picked up a bottle of Microbater to add some bacteria over the first week or two just to be safe.

michealprater · Sep 19, 2023

Great solid advice. Sounds like a need a bacteria and start adding rock a little at a time with some going in a curing station to speed up the process!

Gumbies R Us · Sep 19, 2023

michealprater said:
So I see a ton of information here talking about tank transfers and long arguments on whether to rinse sand or not... I don't care about sand. In 23 years of keeping reefs, I have found no true benefit to sand other than keeping creatures that need sand obviously. Sand gets dirty and nasty, and whether people want to admit it or not, it is typically the eyesore in some rather beautiful reefs. Any way, I will get off my soap box. I will be transferring a 40 breeder system into a 65 gallon system. I was thinking of just moving all the water from one system to the next, using all the existing rock, topping off the additional 25 gallons with fresh saltwater and then over the next couple months adding one small piece of dry rock to the aquascape at a time until I get the rock quantity up to the optimal amount for a larger tank. I dont see how that would be much different than a large water change. I have a mixed reef, softies, LPS, and SPS. With a light bioload as far as fish are concerned. Am I over simplifying this? Please poke holes in my theory. Remember, bare bottom to bare bottom, no sand in the equation what so ever.

Sounds like a great plan!

Buckyboy · Sep 19, 2023

Watching this as I am curious about the transfer success

naterealbig · Sep 19, 2023

BB-er here, and it's a solid plan. I just replaced 60% of my entire tank's rock with dry. A little extra algae on the new rock, but the system didn't skip a beat.

You'll be fine adding a little at a time, but if it were me, I'd knock it out all in one go.

1ocean · Sep 20, 2023

Hi. I went from a 140 bare bottom to a 300 bare bottom, except about 15 pounds of sand in far back corner for two wrasses, which takes up about 12'x12'area last Jan. Tank Has now been up over a year as of Jan. Last month (Aug 12th) I took out all the rock since I used Lace/lava rock due to was the culprit to leaching all kinds of nasty stuff into the water and caused a algae outbreak that I could not control. It has been a few days since Aug 12th when the new marco and caribsea rock creations we made went in. 100 pounds of it. So, yes we got some algae film on all the new rock but the snails and tangs (6 of them) did good job. I only had to brush the new rocks off once about 2 weeks ago and as of this morning there is very little to no algae...I hope my adventure helps you decide about what to do with your rocks. I will put this out there, if it was my tank, I would put all the rock in you want and then only deal with the little algae on the rock once instead of dealing with it each time you put more rocks in...ah my coffee is ready...Ciao....

1ocean · Sep 20, 2023

Oh I just remembered, for the first 2 weeks I used Brightwell Razor at half dose of what they recommended since the new rocks is very minimalistic approach a lot less rock then I had and also the fact that my 72x20x21sump is established. After the first 2 weeks I then add a little extra Brightwell Microbactor 7 each week (100ml). I also added 10 cups of co-pods for two weeks to help seed the rock and keep my mandarin happy. So this week I am going back to my normal small amount of Microbactor 7 which is 30ml or 1 ml per 10 gallons.

Rusty_L_Shackleford · Sep 20, 2023

Waboss said:
I've done that exact method more times that I like to admit (use to move a lot). It should work just fine. I didn't add a little rock at a time though, if I was adding rock, I'd just add it all at once, add a bottle of the "bacteria of the day" to supposedly help out and off it went. Worst I ever had was some ugly stage on the new rock, which goes away after a few weeks or a month or so.

I would just toss the dry rock in a tub with a couple pieces of live rock and. Power head and put a little food in occasionally and just let it marinate. Then add to the display new tank all at once with everything else.

michealprater · Sep 20, 2023

I have a couple rocks that are covered with GSP I dont want to reuse until the gsp dies off. May make some good seed rock in a dark container and the gsp dieoff should help with bacteria.