Anyone have a good reason why I shouldn't go bare bottomed

[llpoolej]

in my tank?? I have been trying to read 84 pages of bare bottom converts. I will get through it sometime in this millenium. I have won one battle in the house(I get to put the tank where *I* think it looks best!!) and now, Larry thinks it will be butt ugly with no substrate. I was thinking of using black starboard.

Anyone have any good reasons I shouldn't??

[awcurl]

I ran a BB for several years and had no problems, in fact it made clean up a breeze and it makes it easy for the snails to right themselves if the fall over. I even had a wrasse in the tank; I just placed a small Tupperware container of sand behind the rockwork for him to bed down in. I later did put a small amount of cc on the bottom for aesthetics. One important thing to remember is that you have to have good live rock because it's your only biological filtration.

As for the black starboard, I think it will make your tank extremely dark because you will have no light reflected back up.

[SmartWrasse]

Many people like bare bottoms :p I would agree you could max out the LR to make sure about bio filtration. The first set up info I read about years ago was bare bottom, and a full LR wall fixed to eggcrate with cable ties.

[Sir Knight]

Well I guess I'll put in my 2 cents.

Can you maintain a reef setup without a deep sand bed; Yes.

Just keep in mind that you need to think about nitrate reduction. That is the main reason for the sand bed.

If you keep a limited number of small fish in a large tank and limit feedings you can use just live rock, a high powered skimmer, good water movement and make weekly water changes you should be OK.

The other approach is a refugium and or an algae scrubber for nitrate reduction with or without a sand bed in the main tank. The key is pollution reduction.

IMO I use a deep sand bed in all of my tanks. If you use one it isn't something you just put in your tank and forget about it has to be maintained and set up correctly. If you have sand dwelling fish or inverts they eat the creatures that you our trying to maintain. You will need to replaced them.

This debate starts up every few years. Deep sand bed vs. bare bottom tanks. If I was going to have a bare bottom main display tank I would have a sand bed in my sump and also an algae scrubber for nitrate reduction. As my systems sit today I have 0 nitrates. I do have deep sand beds in my tanks, live rock,high powered skimmers, good water movement (based on tank size I have a water turnover of about 20 to 30 times an hour) and I do weekly water changes. My fish in all except my 210 (Thanks Art) is limited to two tangs(yellow and kole).

So bottom line will it work ? answer YES. Would I do it? NO the sand bed works for me and I will keep using it.

That is what makes this hobby so interesting, there is no absolute right or wrong way to some degree, do what works for you and record your results.

Here is something else to think about. If you had a large sump with a deep sand bed and an large algae scrubber could you use Bioballs and not use live rock?

Just my opinion
Joe W.

[CORAL REEF KNOXVILLE]

If you would like something we tried in a customers tank that looks cool, try rubble rock in the front and go bare in the back, you still get the cool look of something in the bottom but much easier to clean. plus you get more bact..I
do agree with joe on the smaller number of fish( plus lower feeding amounts) feed a little then feed again if needed as long as all the food is eatin. thanks dennis:D

[llpoolej]

Well, I think Art is going to be generous enough to share some sand to cover my bottom :D

Larry(my husband) made a very good point. "You think that you will have this tank set up long enough to give it time for the sand bed to crash?" He is right. I am pretty sure we won't live in this house for more than a couple of years.

So, I guess the only bare bottom in this house will be my son's when he moons me :D (where did a 3 year old learn that??)

Thanks everyone!

[Sir Knight]

I think your 3 year old was talking to Dave:)
or was it me

[BlackOcellarisUT]

The DSB is so easy to deal with once it is properly set up. smscorals is right. I run undetectible nitrate and very low phosphate in my 7 gal. I completley attribute this to my dsb. have fun I have to go to class.
Thanks for a fun meeting everyone/Dave, see you all in december if I havent left for Christmas break yet! -tj-

[imsqueak]

I'm thinking about (no decided to) going bare bottomed in one of my 75s! I havent been into the sw hobby long but I'm over the slimmy cyano all over my tank. It's so new to me that I still enjoy taking care of it on a daily basis. I also have 2 fluval 404s to do the vacuming (ok, 1 at a time though). I spent a good part of the day reading this huge post beginning to end: Starboard Reef is up and running http://archive.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=223301

I have such a long diy list I'm affraid to tackle it. I want to drill the back out for external box (another long! thread) http://archive.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=271539. Then drill for closed loop. Add; order bhs, cl pump, fluval filter media, a couple trips to Lowes, diamond core bits (I think/hope I got a line on a set of 3 dcb for common size bhs: (this is what I was told by a guy on RC that was not trying to sell me the bits, it's what he bought from yet another company.)
1/2" bulkhead requires a 1 1/8" drill bit
1" bulkhead requires a 1 3/4" drill bit
1 1/2" bulkhead requires a 2 3/8 " drill bit
(can anyone confirm or deny the accuracy of this? I realize they vary slightly, but that's what a dremel is for)
Oh yea, order starboard, I'm thinking light blue. There's several links in that long Starboard thread. Then there's the lights... Did I say affraid or afford? I think afford is the appropriate word!