Bare Bottom Tanks
- Thread starter Dpitts28
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I ran a bare bottom for 4 years. Only downside I saw was (personal preference) aesthetics because I like sand. Another was I had to keep hidden sand reservoirs I made from live rock so I could keep certain kinds of wrasse. Other than that...
BB was really easy to clean. All the dirt found it's way into the area with least flow and made it really easy to siphon it out. And my phosphates and nitrates were always easy to control. Instead of sand I had montis, chalice, and zoos growing on the bottom.
...thinking about it... why do I have sand in my new build? Haha
BB was really easy to clean. All the dirt found it's way into the area with least flow and made it really easy to siphon it out. And my phosphates and nitrates were always easy to control. Instead of sand I had montis, chalice, and zoos growing on the bottom.
...thinking about it... why do I have sand in my new build? Haha
.Thats what im hoping for, easy to clean.. And i want to cover my bottom with chalice and zoas. I think I'm gonna keep mostly tangs and anthias and a couple angels so I should be alright on the fish part. I was wondering about the nutrient part of things but you said that your phosphate and nitrate was easy to keep in check so maybe it will be ok.
You cant keep any sand based livestock, certain gobies, snails etc. I cant think of anything else, I keep very little sand, coarse-grained, purely for aesthetics.
alten78
Active Member
I went bare bottom for the first time early this year after 12 years of sand and I doubt that I will go back. I didn't think i would like the aesthetics of it but I got tired of my clowns and other critters creating sandstorms but I painted the bottom of the tank white and I think it makes the look really clean. I've had fellow reefers come over that weren't fans of BB and think differently.
The downside as others have mentioned is that you can't keep animals that need a sand bed, although, i thought about putting sand in a container for a wrasse. Detritus does make its way to low flow areas which is convenient to siphon but so does chunks of coralline which isn't easy for me to siphon. I have to pull out the vacuum every other week before it starts driving me crazy which is just a pain for my setup.
The downside as others have mentioned is that you can't keep animals that need a sand bed, although, i thought about putting sand in a container for a wrasse. Detritus does make its way to low flow areas which is convenient to siphon but so does chunks of coralline which isn't easy for me to siphon. I have to pull out the vacuum every other week before it starts driving me crazy which is just a pain for my setup.
So for those of you running bare bottom do you glue frags to the bottom or is the weight of the plug enough to keep them in place. I just started a small nano tank with a bare bottom so that I could have high flow in (it's only 7" tall so sand would go everywhere) and I was planning on getting zoa's monti and other corals to grow on the bottom like the pics above
red02
Active Member
when i went bare bottom i used starboard and all dry rock i would make sure you use some good old seasoned live rock that has been in a system for years. it took my tank a year before i was able to keep sps coral.Also i put a bunch of rock in my sump because i didn't have a lot of rock in the display. 2 mp60 about 200 snails I'm now loving the tank the maintenance is so easy no gfo just give it time.
Fantastic!!! Thanks for sharing and the inspiration!Astrea snails are the ones I keep. Love those guys. Next time I will cover the glass in white starboard though. Here's a few pics of just bare bottom glass. You can see the growth in a 2 month span.
