Sps shallow

[garcia64]

I am planning on starting a shallow 30g sps and jus wanted to see what shallow sps tanks that the community has. I have a chance to make a custom sump and want to know what you guys have in your sump and what media reactors you have and recommend. I will only have about 24"x24" for a sump so would only really be able to add the essentials for a sps tank. Let me know what you guys think. Also bare bottom or sand?

 

[BoneXriffic]

I personally like sand, shallow tanks can be pretty awesome. But personally i am not a fan of reactors, gfo mainly. I know cases can bary but i believe phosphates can be controlled more naturally. Especially in a small tank gfo if not done right can do some damage. Besides, acros are nore forgiving with phosphates than some say... this is only personal experie ce though. Results may vary =)

 

[garcia64]

Bump

 

[Biggles]

This is my 60x32x18" peninsula which i think falls into the shallow category. I had to siphon out 100lbs of sand to catch an untrapable devil spawn green wrasse that was burying my acros in sand which is when the pic was taken. I've recently put 100lbs of new sand back in so i once again have a 1-1.5" deep sand bed but haven't got a pic. I'm waiting on a new big sump/frag tank so i can remove all the clutter and finally see the islands alone against the sand.
I'll take a top down with no clutter and the white sand bed only as a backdrop for you so you can see why i think a sand bed is the way you should go, This is no sand obviously.

I have a mesh bag with a cup of carbon, skimmer and 16L of matrix in the sump and that's it.

The lighting is spooky looking because i took it under the supplementary actinic plus and lagoon blue bulbs.

 

[KoiTang]

barebottom. Less sand getting kicked up in a shallow tank.

 

[drawman]

I have the same sized tank that originally had about 1" of sand. I restarted it within the past year and went barebottom. It takes quite a bit more scrubbing/siphoning to keep the barebottom look clean but it's not that bad on a 30 gallon. I'll be curious to see if you go with a skimmer and if so which one.

 

[garcia64]

I have the same sized tank that originally had about 1" of sand. I restarted it within the past year and went barebottom. It takes quite a bit more scrubbing/siphoning to keep the barebottom look clean but it's not that bad on a 30 gallon. I'll be curious to see if you go with a skimmer and if so which one.

I will be going with a skimmer and more than likely a red sea skimmer, I am not sure which one but it would be a huge one, no more than 85gallon rated skimmer

 

[spartanman22]

I have a Deep Blue 80 (16" deep). I've got a Synergy Reef sump with an AquaUV 8w Sterilizer, Vertex RX-U with GFO, Vertex Omega Skimmer, and a media pure block.