Covering entire bottom in dry rock.

[sammander]

Has anyone every done an aquascape where the majority of the aquarium floor is covered in dry rock (instead of sand or bare bottom )in addition to the normal hills, arches, walls, etc.???

 

[Webslinger]

Detritus trap

 

[sammander]

I understand, but then you would also say that all liverock is also a detritus trap then? If you have your entire bottom just liverock covered in corals etc. I am not disagreeing, I would just like to hear if anyone has ever actually tried this versus just saying it is a detritus trap and end the discussion. Anyone else actually try this?

 

[Copingwithpods]

I think I see what you're getting at, like the whole bottom portion is one slab of rock with the Aquascape on top? That would actually be interesting and wouldn't be anymore of a detritus trap than sand or crush coral.

So instead of the traditional slice of ocean with sand

Something like this that looks like you took a piece of the reef the size of your tank

 

[Tamberav]

People have done tiles or slate or something on the bottom so it would be kind of similar to that.

Yes all live rock can trap debris...I guess that's why some advocate elevating the rock off the bottom so it's almost floating.

In stir my sand but it gets dirty under the rocks for sure. If I had a deeper tank I would have done a floating scape.

 

[Smarkow]

I took my sand out about 8 months ago while I was working to eradicate aiptasia and increase flow for sps. With the aiptasia gone, I took a mix of marco rock two sided cuts and TLF stax and filled most of the bottom with it.

I don’t have a ton of recent pictures, but mushrooms are settling into the cracks and zoas and coralline are encrusting the floor. Plan is to add some cloves and leptostrea very soon.

I have “not” found it to be a significant detritus trap (the detritus is there but I use a Julian’s Thing feeding tool to occasionally blow the detritus back into circulation), but the tank did go through an ugly stage when I transitioned from sand to hard bottom.

 

[Cell]

Most debris will typically settle at the bottom. Its not just about live rock being a trap because of its porous nature, but also all the debris that will make it's way under the rock floor and be inaccessible to remove.

 

[sammander]

Yes exactly @Copingwithpods

It's great to see that actually people have tried this. I have just gotten back into the hobby after many years. I spent probably about 6 months just reading and watching youtube videos and noticed that this was something not mentioned much. There are always sand vs bare bottom debates, but no one ever mentioned a "rock bottom." I am wondering that once things got back into balance and for example became completely encrusted and covered with coral, the detritus and other things would be consumed by them, and the rest by the bacteria?

Of course other maintenance could be done like @Smarkow mentioned. Thanks for all the screenshots. I like to see evidence versus opinions.

 

[Smarkow]

Cleaned my glass for this but no other routine maintenance. I have more encrusters coming today from the Vivid live sale and just received some sps and others from Budmans. Updated bare bottom shot that IS safe for work:

 

[Silver14SS]

I used Stax rock, but didn’t cover the entire bottom. To help keep detritus from settling, I attached pieces of travertine tile to the bottom of the stax to serve as risers.

 

[Smarkow]

I used Stax rock, but didn’t cover the entire bottom. To help keep detritus from settling, I attached pieces of travertine tile to the bottom of the stax to serve as risers.

Cool idea. Should make siphoning detritus easier? How much does the tile elevate it? I used some Stax myself. Love that product. Any pics? Thanks for sharing

 

[Silver14SS]

Lowe's lists the tile I used as 10mm thick. I cut them in half, in hindsight I could have made them smaller. Frag discs would have worked too.

https://www.lowes.com/pd/Anatolia-Tile-8-Pack-Ivory-Travertine-3-in-x-6-in-Natural-Stone-Look-Wall-Tile/1001048570

 

[baywindow]

why not a styrofoam and cement fake rock bottom. I assume it will not be porous and less of a debris trap then? Nothing can come below? Like in this thread https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/styrofoam-epoxy-sand-decor.348818/

 

[sammander]

why not a styrofoam and cement fake rock bottom. I assume it will not be porous and less of a debris trap then? Nothing can come below? Like in this thread https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/styrofoam-epoxy-sand-decor.348818/

That's also a good idea. Everything is possible as long as people are able to spend the time and or money to solve it. I am sure large aquariums are doing this safely and have strict water requirements. So if they do it why can't we emulate the same process on a smaller scale. Again ocean floors are not always just sand, and what we call bare bottom glass is actually the bare rock bottom once actually encrusted. This is the reason we should keep pushing for open discussions and not just accept the easy way out, this makes not only more lively discussions and learning, but also better reefs.

 

[Dr. Dendrostein]

Has anyone every done an aquascape where the majority of the aquarium floor is covered in dry rock (instead of sand or bare bottom )in addition to the normal hills, arches, walls, etc.???

Question you got to ask yourself is what type of corals you planning to care for.
If you're going for SPS, you may have issues, all other corals should do fine, soft corals will definitely love that setup.

 

[Shiggknight]

I guess this was a bad idea

 

[Gp!]

Cleaned my glass for this but no other routine maintenance. I have more encrusters coming today from the Vivid live sale and just received some sps and others from Budmans. Updated bare bottom shot that IS safe for work:

That is awesome!

I am working on an acrylic setup that will be bare bottom and I have been considering flat cut rock across the tank floor and then aquascaping on top of it.

Now that you've done it for awhile, would you recommend it? Would you do it differently if you were to do it again?