Going BB today!

[cidory]

After much consideration and research,, Im converting BB today, the pros far outweigh the cons in my view, maybe ill take a pic or 2 along the way, this is the tank before


[IMG][/IMG]

[raddogz]

Good Luck. I went bare bottom couple weeks ago when I upgraded my tank (30ish to 58g). I don't regret it one bit. Corals looked way better (healthier in my opintion) as the polyp extension was much more noticeble even though coral was down lower in the tank by about six inches.

[sonofgaladriel]

I would be very nervous messing with a beautiful tank like that. Everything looks great in there. I hope it all goes smoothly for you. Please post a pic once you've made the switch.

[AgentSPS]

It is going to be a lot of hard work!! I did mine about a month ago. Everything is doing much much better! Here is a link to the thread I posted pics on:

http://archive.reefcentral.com/forum...hreadid=536475

Let us know how it goes. Beautiful tank BTW! Colors are awesome!

[fragn'stein]

You won't regret it. I did mine, although I upgraded tanks in the process, about 2 months ago. Before the move I lost all color in my SPS, probably due to a crashing sandbed of CC. Now all color has returned. I almost forgot how beautiful my purple rimmed cap was until the other day when it started to turn purple again.

[smeese]

I moved my tank and was debating the BB world. I ended up using a thin layer of sand after all. Your tank looks great! I wish you the best of luck.

[JoeMack]

Did mine yesterday! GL!

[arconom]

Your tank is awesome!

What were the main reasons for your decision to go BB?

[cidory]

The tank pic was before things started going wrong, I believe I had undetectable nutrients that caused browning on almost everything. I lost about 6-7 large colonies. I tried everything under the sun to get it under control. Upon removing my sand bed it was obvious it was nothing but a low grade septic tank with virtually no life in it, I found one worm and so much old detritus it was unbelievable. Tank is up an running with Starboard bottom. I still may lose some on the conversion but in the long run I think it will be worth it. Thanks to Bomber for his help! As soon as I am able I ll take some pics. 8 hours start to finish. Much more work than I anticipated.

[drock59]

YOu will not regret it. have fun and good luck

[jpg]

Best move I made. I did the transition just about two months ago and am having tremendous results already.

[cidory]

Everything going well thus far, except that my skimmer doesnt have anything to pull out now. Hard to belive I had a Euro Reef skimmer to take care of the sand bed, This morning it doesnt even look like there is water in the tank its so clear, now if I can just get the aquascape like I want it.

[drtango]

Your skimmer will go back to work as the "crud" dies off the rock--even clean looking rock will shed lots of stuff. Try to siphon what you can out of there every few days. I was amazed what came off/out of my rock!!

John

[raddogz]

I siphoned every day, for the first week.

I added a 100 micron filter sock (changed every other day), so when I took a powerhed to blast the crap off the rocks and floor, I wouldn't jam up the pump for the skimmer.

My skimmer still pulls out junk, but it's not as bad as it was before I took out the sand bed.

[golfish]

Originally posted by cidory
Thanks to Bomber for his help!

He's a pretty good guy. He helped me out when I went BB (starborad) last year.

Best thing I ever did was to go starborad...well, except for marrying my wife.

[ridetheducati]

Good luck and enjoy the new look.

I have been BB for 4 months, after cooking my rock for 12 months, and the tank just looks and feels better. I must say that my skimmer, 40" GEO Beckett, is not pulling as much crap as with my old 3yr old DSB. My fish bioload is nil, I am sure that has a lot to do with it.

[cidory]

As expected I have lost a few corals on the switch, but mostly what was struggling before the change. Did not place all rock back in the tank, found a few pieces that were covered in a brown slimy stuff, maybe sponge, dont really know , but they stunk to high heaven, couldnt be good, tank is very clean at this point, with enough flow to move most junk out the overflow. Question for anyone...... Do you remove all corals once they start to STN? Im curious

[Bomber]

Nope, I cut them up until I run into clean white skeleton. Then seal it good with superglue, and start them over.

So how many aspirin did it take?

[raddogz]

I only lost one to rtn after the switch. I never was completely happy with it, as it would go through bouts of stn, and then bounce back.

[cidory]

Need some sort of anti anxiety drug at this point, hard to rush nature and we try to re-create it

[Daddyo]

Is it possible to go BB without a "starboard" like substance on the bottom of an acrylic?

[raddogz]

If you have an acrylic tank there is no real need outside of aestheticlly pleasing your eye with something there.

[WmTasker]

Here is a pic of mine in August of 2004. I need to update it. I love not having sand. I haven't had an algae problem since the move to starboard. I used to have to battle hair and slime algae all the time. Now I would never have a reef other than BB.

[cidory]

One week in and things arent going well with my corals. Most of what I lost was on its way out anyway, Water clarity , parameters are right on. Some parts of live rock may be dying. Changing filter sock every other day with a 10% water change. I have not regreted one thing about this switch, however it may take some more time for corals that were damaged to recover.

[mia1974]

I am going BB in a week as well. I am in the same situation as you where quite a few acros are doing so poorly I think they may not make it. They are probably goners anyhow though. Just think about when the day comes that everything stabilizes and things start recovering and growing. That is what I will look forward to-when all the effort you put in actually pays off instead of 100% effort and yet still declining corals.

I have actually had people say that perhaps I have been neglecting my tank a bit , that maybe if I put a bit more effort out things will recover. What is really funny is that I have put more effort into the past 1.5 years of reefkeeping to keep this tank from all out crashing than in all my 11 years of reefkeeping combined. It is frustrating to say the least...

When I put some sickly looking sps frags into my separate prop system it took almost 2 months for the corals to heal up. Now they look awesome, and the mothers in the main still look crappy-even though I used the same rock and water-just no DSB.

Don't worry, things will get better in time