Bare bottom or sand
- Thread starter 303travism
- Start date
nice thing about bare bottom is it makes it easy to siphon detritus out when doing water changes...another thing is you will be able to have higher flows without sand blowing all over filling your rock crevices...
bad thing about bare bottoms is you wont be able to have a wide variety of fishes/cuc. You'll also have to have more mechanical filtration to make up for lack of bio filtration.
bad thing about bare bottoms is you wont be able to have a wide variety of fishes/cuc. You'll also have to have more mechanical filtration to make up for lack of bio filtration.
I setup a 20 gallon long barebottom back in September. It's a zoa tank, and I didn't want to worry about the flow from my MP10 pushing around sand and/or burying recently cut frags...the other reason I went with it is because it makes removing detritus simple. I've found 2 areas on the bottom of the tank where sediment starts to settle, and just vacuum it out every week with my water change.
I like the simplicity and the lack of areas for detritus to hide and accumulate in such a small system. It does limit livestock choices, but I opted to go with just a single fish in that tank (pygmy angel) and had no real need for a sandbed. As far as looks go, my tank was placed on a table with a gray ceramic tile top, so it didn't look too bad initially, and I'm starting to see coralline algae cover the bottom of the tank. It looked odd at first with rock and no sand, but the clean look grew on me...I'm considering going with a barebottom tank again if I do a larger build, and would probably just run a sandbed in my fuge for additional filtration and buffering.
I like the simplicity and the lack of areas for detritus to hide and accumulate in such a small system. It does limit livestock choices, but I opted to go with just a single fish in that tank (pygmy angel) and had no real need for a sandbed. As far as looks go, my tank was placed on a table with a gray ceramic tile top, so it didn't look too bad initially, and I'm starting to see coralline algae cover the bottom of the tank. It looked odd at first with rock and no sand, but the clean look grew on me...I'm considering going with a barebottom tank again if I do a larger build, and would probably just run a sandbed in my fuge for additional filtration and buffering.
Years ago I did a BB on a 125 in-wall at home. I used the "starboard" stuff that is basically plastic cuttingboard. I glued rubble and some sand to it for texture, and it did look a bit artificial for about a month. Then, it started to cover rather quickly with coralline etc. It was an sps tank with super high flow and I was dosing like mad--so it covered up nicely (plastic covers more quickly than glass, IME). After a year or wo the entire bottom was encrusted and piled with different shapes of coralline--it was truly neat to see the different ways it grew and piled up. I really did like the simplicity, the siphoning, etc. I would do it again for sure.
I'll have to check when I get home. I simply used PVC glue and spread it with a cheap paint brush (sort of--not very compliant). Then sprinkled with lots of sand and waited. And waited. I epoxied a few chunks (no bigger than marbles) in a few places and tried to build up some smallish mounds by mixing sand and PVC cement together in a cup--not awful, but not how i thought it would go. I was mostly looking for textures and undulations rather than a smooth appearance. Like I said, the coralline took care of that relatively quickly.
I'll see if i can scrounge up a pic later. Then see if I remember how to attach one here!
I'll see if i can scrounge up a pic later. Then see if I remember how to attach one here!
Bare bottom or sand
My tank will be an open top and I think all sand sifters are jumpers or at least everyone I've had I'm thinking bare bottom because its going to be a tank at work plan on only have 2 clowns and nem in it zoas and maybe some other things but majority z and p's and I like the idea of easy clean up and clean look.
My tank will be an open top and I think all sand sifters are jumpers or at least everyone I've had I'm thinking bare bottom because its going to be a tank at work plan on only have 2 clowns and nem in it zoas and maybe some other things but majority z and p's and I like the idea of easy clean up and clean look.
Aragonite also provides buffering and phosphate binding. If you have some in your fuge, then you are covered. Older sand beds are said to "leech" phosphate, but in actuality, they just cannot bind any more. I am a sand guy, but I do start to replace it 40lb at a time after about 3-4 years - I just siphon it out during a water change and drop the new washed sand in through a funnel... I can get about 20lbs per water change.
I have moved to waveboxes (only recently, to my regret) which don't even disturb sugar sandbeds yet keep the corals happier than all of the massive amounts of "flow" that I had before.
I have moved to waveboxes (only recently, to my regret) which don't even disturb sugar sandbeds yet keep the corals happier than all of the massive amounts of "flow" that I had before.