Fish only bare bottom?

[rplank]

Anyone do this? Is it possible/advisable? I have plenty of liverock to go in but the longer I am doing this, the less I enjoy the sandbed.

 

[Shaunv]

Guess it depends on the fish. Any sand dwellers in there?

 

[rplank]

Clowns are the only for sure

 

[rplank]

I guess I need to clarify my thought process......are the anaerobic critters found in the sandbed the only way that poo and other detritus breaks down? Would daily vacuuming of gunk be required or would critters in liverock help take care of it?

 

[Ghxst]

Based on what I was told this weekend you need sand. But if you have a pair of clowns in a 30 gallon with lots of rock I wouldn't see an issue. Other than you having to make the flow to move the poop to your filtration device either by pumps or manually. What is your plans, tank, equipment, full fish list etc..?

 

[jda123]

Why would you want to remove the most effective denitrator around? Keep the sand clean and it will do all of the hard work for you.

BB reefs require massive amounts of flow, super large skimmers and even some activated carbon to keep the water clear and clean... FO would be a bit dirtier.

 

[rplank]

Its all hypothetical at the moment. I have a 30 long sitting empty, and permission to get a pair of clowns. I have LR from my 55 and sump I could use. I hadn't settled on any additional stock beyond clowns. Maybe a firefish and a dottyback. I just didn't know if fowlr without sand was doable.

 

[SynDen]

Its not so much that you need sand, but there are benefits to having a sand bed, and in the case of Ghxst tank, taking all the sand out in a well established tank could have some negative repercussions. That being said I have seen a few successful BB tanks, but from those that have had them they seemed to spend more time vacuuming up the gunk that collects on the bottom then you would with a sand bed because in BB it just collects and there aren't as many critters in the tank to clean it up. With sand you will either have to occasionally vacuum up parts of the sand as a general maintenance thing or get some sand dwellers like gobies and jawfish that dig around and sift/aerate the sand which will do a lot of your vacuuming for you. If you chose a medium to larger size aggregate for your sand then the vacuuming will just pull up the gunk and not the sand.