Show me your Bare Bottom

[luke33]

Like the thread says, for us BB people out there I'd like to see how natural one can make it look. I had my tank built with a black bottom and after a year or so its completely covered with coralline algae, some zoa's and lps. This is the most natural BB tank I've ever had.

 

[Acameron2]

My attempt at barebottom. Still a young tank right now.

 

[shakinghorizons]

The title cracks me up!!!

Anyway, I will be going barebottom (probably use black HDPE) on my next tank - subscribed!

 

[luke33]

Prior bb tank was a standard 125g roughly 6-8yrs ago. What I like is lots of flow, zero detritus and a large skimmer, seems to work out just fine. I wish i would have had a nicer camera back in the day!

 

[riche]

If going bare bottom, would you just paint the glass black on the underside so the lights dont get thru into the stand?

 

[luke33]

If going bare bottom, would you just paint the glass black on the underside so the lights dont get thru into the stand?

There are a ton of different options. I've seen white and black starboard, HDPE, painted, rock structure's, foam structure's....etc. I wouldn't worry to much on the light getting through to the stand as it will eventually be covered with coralline algae or coral. My tank has black acrylic on the back wall and bottom.

 

[Acameron2]

That green slimmer [emoji33] [emoji108]

 

[happyhourhero]

I need to update my pic but here is my barebottom. OP's looks great...mine is getting there but you cant tell from the pic.

 

[eel-byte]

Subscribed. I have a temp bare bottom setup but am having issues with flow moving the plugs around along with snails.

 

[luke33]

I need to update my pic but here is my barebottom. OP's looks great...mine is getting there but you cant tell from the pic.

Tank looks great! Is that just a black acrylic bottom?

 

[happyhourhero]

Its just glass. I painted the bottom of the tank black too.

 

[Jimbo]

I've been debating about adding sand but there are so many advantages to the barebottom. Sand looks so much more natural but here's my 93 cube

 

[Patjam]

I really like the BB look. Should I be concerned or cautious placing a certain amount of rock on bare glass? Or is there some kind of special platform the rock sits on to evenly distribute the weight? Hopefully I'm explaining this correctly haha!

 

[Jimbo]

I used cutting board, brand name "starboard" because I warned altitude extra protection and I liked the look of it.

Lots of people just place the rock on the bare glass with no problems. Just make sure your rock structure is sturdy.

 

[luke33]

I've been debating about adding sand but there are so many advantages to the barebottom. Sand looks so much more natural but here's my 93 cube

Looks great, here in a year your tank should really be filled in nicely.

 

[luke33]

I really like the BB look. Should I be concerned or cautious placing a certain amount of rock on bare glass? Or is there some kind of special platform the rock sits on to evenly distribute the weight? Hopefully I'm explaining this correctly haha!

I never worried about placing the rock on the glass bottom as long as you have a good footing from the rock. If you want to take BB a step further you can add "Feet" to all your structures using pvc, acrylic rods....etc and then you can even have flow under your rock to avoid any detritus traps.