reef tank half sand half bar bottom

[danp01]

ok so i was going to upgrade to a 90 gallon tank. i have a 30 now. i was thinking of doing half the tank with sand and the other half bare bottom. the reason i am thinking of doing this is because i have a yellow gobe and i know they need sand. i dont real want to go out and buy lots more sand as it will most likely start a new cycle. i also like the bare botton tanks. does any one do this and if so can you post photos and let me know your experience. thank you

 

[ichthyogeek]

Hmmm....so back when harvested shelf rock was a thing, I created a "mini-DSB" by taking a very closely cut piece of shelf rock and putting it such that it prevented the DSB from leaking into the shallow sand bed. It worked to an extent, but I didn't cut the rock right, and I eventually ended up taking the DSB down when I rescaped the tank.

You could easily do it by siliconing a glass panel on the bottom of the tank, but keep in mind that unless you have a (rather unsightly) tall barrier, there's going to be some sand that gets to the barebottom side.

 

[newfly]

I am thinking doing the same; half sand half bb with starboard. Sand in the front. Rock will be on starboard. If i use 3/4" starboard, it will form a barrier and keep most of the sand in front. Weekly i can use a powerhead to sweep all the sand on the starboard to the sand pile in front. My tank is still on order and may be 3-4 more weeks waiting time.


What did you ended up doing? Can you share some pic?

 

[ReefHog]

You could easily do it by siliconing a glass panel on the bottom of the tank, but keep in mind that unless you have a (rather unsightly) tall barrier, there's going to be some sand that gets to the barebottom side.

Many years ago I had a 48" 150 gallon that I did just that. I siliconed a one inch strip of glass length wise across the tank. Then I used a hand grinder with a concrete blade and cut a slit in a bunch of dry rock and placed the rock over and all along the bottom over the strip of glass. The glass disappears and the sand goes in front and looks very natural. The rocks were high enough that very little sand would make it to the back. Wish I had a pic but there were no cell phones back then.