going bare bottom

[uchin]

I added the tunze 6105 in the tank and they are blowing sand around. One of my chalice got buried and half of it died. since I'm into chalice(nice ones being frags) desided to go bare bottom. I only have around 60 lbs in the tank. I guess I'm sucking out the sand during my next water change and the tranfer into my sump. What ya think. Oh my tank is 185gal and the sand bed is only 2 inch.

 

[Znut Reefer]

I have been BB for yrs. Just too much flow in my tank for sand. And I have chalices all over the floor of my tank.

I don't regret not having sand at all. A lot less to deal with.

 

[reefdan]

i am in the same boat as znut. lots of flow and lots of chalices.

i used a thin acrylic sheet under the tank. it seems to serve multiple purposes by: keeping rock pressure off the glass, creating a (small) plenum zone underneath for nitrification, and it gets covered with coralline which makes it look cooler than a clear pane (although the glass will cover w/ coralline too.)

i don't think i'll go back to sand.

 

[uchin]

Thanks guys oh and gals. I got off the phone with a friend who owns a lfs. He's bare bottom and says to keep sand for less work. He has a lot of fish and prob. Does very lil maintanece. I'm thinking about just keeping the sand behind the rocks, I can't really reach there anyway. I have a lot of sand shifter. I'm thinking about just keeping the conches in the tank. When I setup the tank three months ago I places the rock first then the sand. So the rock can break the glass?

 

[pjr]

I've run BB on the current tank for almost 5 years. I've never had a major crash, never an algae problem, no issues with Nitrates or Phosphate (measures GREAT), and all my fish are healthy and strong with great survival rates. I do a weekly water change of about 8% and that's it. Oh, I do have starboard on the bottom, which is now covered with coraline.

Go for it, you'll be glad you did!

 

[uchin]

So if I syphon the sand out into a bucket, then drain most of the water out of section of sump where I will add the sand back in by scooping. This sound about right? What's the negative of bare bottom?

 

[snk713]

how do you like your 6105's?

 

[ness]

The negative of bare bottom is its very easy for the tank to become too sterile. Many soft corals like Ricordeas and Zoanthids don't do well in bare bottom tanks. Though there are always exceptions to the "rules" in this hobby. You need to have a lot of fish and feed heavy for your corals to maintain color long-term in a bare bottom tank.

 

[uchin]

I had mp40. They blow them out the water. They are running on a 7095 controller along with a wavebox. I they can make a bigger wave than the wave box. I might add the 6055 to hit up the dead spots. I have them in the back of the sides pointing towards the middle of the front glass on sequence mode. Runs one at 100% then down to 50% back and forth and at the same time. So yeah they are all a reefer would ever need to create huge flow. My friend has 4 6205 he only runs two at time for two or three hrs to create a real natural reef current.

 

[hawkfishman]

to bad bb are so ugly

 

[agsansoo]

The negative of bare bottom is its very easy for the tank to become too sterile. Many soft corals like Ricordeas and Zoanthids don't do well in bare bottom tanks. Though there are always exceptions to the "rules" in this hobby. You need to have a lot of fish and feed heavy for your corals to maintain color long-term in a bare bottom tank.

What ...? (scratching my head on this comment) I can't keep my zoa'sunder control. LOL

BB for life ...(been BB for 2 years now) never going back to sand !

 

[reefdan]

wow that's a lot of zoos!

 

[agsansoo]

Yeah ... I'm getting rid of some of them to make room for acans I want. Those brown and green center zoa's spread like weeds. LOL

 

[Hahnmeister]

I like SOME sand, but on my next tank I plan on using aragacrete to make a sand-looking bottom (that is really a solid plate with holes for frag plugs).