Sand, bare bottom, or...? The deliberations continue!
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OP
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Both of the 500s, still super, super early in the game...but a study in contrasts nonetheless.
Old School with sand..
"Post modern" with no sand, minimal rock.
I maintain all types of substrates... comes down to personal preference IMO. For my office reef I went BB:
1stNoel
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I initially didn't like the look of a bare-bottom tank. But after seeing several at the local LFS, and with the issues I have with sandstorms in my current tank...I'm going bare-bottom with my new 300 gallon build.
Thanks for the great pics on this thread. It reinforces my decision!
Thanks for the great pics on this thread. It reinforces my decision!
Paul B
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When I started my tank in 1971 dolomite and ug filter was the only thing around. It has never crashed so it is still the same
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Since no one has really mentioned it, sand bottom or not depends solely on the type of reef location you are going for with coral. If you want the sps and the crest and fore face, you would not want sand because it would look very unnatural. However, if you want the lagoon, patch reef, back reef, you would want sand or rubble because that is what would look natural.
Of course, that is only if you are going for natural. Completely unnatural can be pretty cool too.
Of course, that is only if you are going for natural. Completely unnatural can be pretty cool too.
CenlaReefer
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The quote function did not work for me- user error no doubt. I am doing this old-school:
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Hart24601 said:
"You can have scattered rocks with or without corals across the bottom, corals directly on and growing across the bottom or just LPS like plates sitting on the bottom, mine did great on the glass and I have had many large maximas on the glass that did great as once they hit over 5" they seem to not really attach much. "
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Hart24601, thanks for addressing my question about corals attaching to the bottom. I would like to try this; however, I would rather not cause damage when attempting to remove an LPS if it does attach. I am tempted to not to frag some for many years, still I do not want a headache when I attempt to do so. To prevent this, I guess I could put a patch of rubble or medium grain sand beneath it to prevent this. As another option, I am thinking about making very thin and natural-looking, "reef rocks" [irregular "plates"] with concrete to place under certain corals. I have made these before and they looked much better than frag disks or square tiles. If corals such as favias and chalices do attach to the bottom glass, how can they be removed in order to minimize damage? Can one pry it off slowly? Anyone have experience with this?
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Hart24601 said:
"You can have scattered rocks with or without corals across the bottom, corals directly on and growing across the bottom or just LPS like plates sitting on the bottom, mine did great on the glass and I have had many large maximas on the glass that did great as once they hit over 5" they seem to not really attach much. "
_______________________
Hart24601, thanks for addressing my question about corals attaching to the bottom. I would like to try this; however, I would rather not cause damage when attempting to remove an LPS if it does attach. I am tempted to not to frag some for many years, still I do not want a headache when I attempt to do so. To prevent this, I guess I could put a patch of rubble or medium grain sand beneath it to prevent this. As another option, I am thinking about making very thin and natural-looking, "reef rocks" [irregular "plates"] with concrete to place under certain corals. I have made these before and they looked much better than frag disks or square tiles. If corals such as favias and chalices do attach to the bottom glass, how can they be removed in order to minimize damage? Can one pry it off slowly? Anyone have experience with this?
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I have sand and love the look of sand. I've only seen 1 tank with BB that I liked the look and it's above, Stunreefer!
But, as Scott says, it comes down to personal taste. I thought at one time I would cover the bottom of my tank with mushrooms. Boy was that a crazy idea!
But, as Scott says, it comes down to personal taste. I thought at one time I would cover the bottom of my tank with mushrooms. Boy was that a crazy idea!
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I have sand now, but will be switching back to bare bottom with white sand looking paint on the underside of the tank.
Love the look of sand but not when it gets covered in algae.
I find it much easier to maintain po4, and no3 without sand.
Love the look of sand but not when it gets covered in algae.
I find it much easier to maintain po4, and no3 without sand.
steevareno
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I'm starting my second tank today and I'm thinking small black tiles from home Depot would work well for fragging chalices zoas favia etc. Grow em out. Looks great and sell them to recoup some $$$.
adestafi
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I did one half Of my tank in fine sand and the other in crushed coral... I will never do fine sand again. I thought a sand bar would be cool but- If I want to crank up the power heads - it's a disaster. When I clean the tank-- it's a pita bc sand goes everywhere. Wish I would have gone half BB.
Quartapound
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After 5 years in the hobby after my recent move this summer I went BB and I'm loving it. glass is getting completely covered with coralline, I love the idea of putting some zoas or an encrusting coral on the bottom too. I'll never go back to substrate in the DT, I've considered a remote sandbed with miracle mud though.... undecided
Bruce Burnett
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I like all the answers here. I have done shallow and deep sand beds. Been out of the hobby for seven years and got back into it a year ago. Went bare bottom on a 260 DT. Then I moved 300 miles, it is still bare bottom. I love the looks of new sugar fine sand but I am lazy when it comes to cleaning the sand. With large amounts of water movement forget the fine sand. I feed corals and fish heavy so I want everything in the water column as long as possible until the skimmer pulls it out. I don't like water changes again lazy. When I set this one up everything was to reduce effort and time spent. Bare bottom lots of water movement can do over 20,000 gallons of movement nothing to siphon from DT, GFO reactor, carbon reactor, calcium reactor, recirculating bio pellet reactor, way oversized skimmer, 60gal auto top off. Led lighting no chiller no heater and no apex controller. When I moved the guy helping caused the death of my corals so all new SPS frags put in a week ago and I can see growth in almost all the frags. Not really lazy just enough health issues that I don't want my hobby to be a problem.
If you paint/tint bottom there's no reflection
