To Barebottom or not to barebottom?

if you want mainly a pure SPS tank do bare bottom, you can get a whole lot more flow in there and not disturb sand or zoa's or other LPS that hate a ton of flow. with enough flow in there you wont have to siphon anything. I love my bare bottom so far. i keep some sand in the sump just as a extra source of bacteria, and have heard that it can mess with your PH levels if you dont, but i'm not sure on that.

 

I just broke down my 90 it had a 3in sand bed and the mega ton of nasty crap that was locked into is is making me think bare bottom on the rebuild. Or just one inch or less of crushed coral. That i would vacuum regularly. So i guess i have the same questions as you do.
-Bill

 

I might be one of the few but I prefer sand over BB for aesthetics. I have always had sand in my tanks up until I moved. Now I am seriously thinking of putting down a 1/2" layer of sand in my tank.

 

In my last tank I had a deep sand bed and the reason I went to bare bottom on the move was because the sand was always getting blown around and killing corals. With sand you need a fish or something to keep the sand stirred, which causes more sand in the water column. I could go on and on about how much I hated the sand, but I am extremely happy with my tank being bare bottom. If you really like the idea of sand, you can do a sand epoxy blend that I've seen before. If you're interested I can try to dig up the thread about that. But if you put down some acrylic over the bottom glass, it will get encrusted with coralline eventually, so you won't even notice it as much. Another great thing about bare bottom, like Chris said, if you have enough flow you won't have to siphon out as much, or anything, off the bottom glass/acrylic. It all ends up in the overflows. But, if you don't have that much flow in just the right spots, it's really simple to siphon that stuff out, while tanks with sand it's so difficult to find piles of detritus and other nasty stuff, most of it ends up getting mixed in with the sand. The first year I had my tank I always said I could never do a tank without sand because it didn't look right, but "I love bare bottom and would never go back!" /DesktopModules/ActiveForums/themes/_default/emoticons/smile.gif

-Adam

 

I dunno,

I have a BB & hate the look of it so far. I am seriously thinking about putting in an inch of sand just for looks.

I really like the sand that Bhoward had in his tank. It was nice & white & not too small. I think the bigger stuff wont blow around so much.

 

Here's an idea i had that i'm considering on my rebuild. I was thinking take 1\2 cpvc and make a grid across the entire bottom with small holes in it every 2 inches or so angeled down. Then hook this up to a pump set to cycle on and off every other hour for a few minutes to keep things stirred up. Then cover the grid with crushed coral. What do you guys think?

 

I went from BB back to sand and now I want to pull all my rock and get the sand out. I have 100+ sand sifting snails, a yellow watchman that sifts every so often, then an MP20 and just had to add a K1. And I still have crap on my sand!!! If you go BB and hate the look its just another reason to buy more coral to cover the bottom /DesktopModules/ActiveForums/themes/_default/emoticons/wink.gif

 

Plenum never herd off it. I guess i google it and see.

 

From what i just read the point of a plenum is to move detrus foward to be vacuumed out where the system i was thinking of would blow it up into the water column to be removed by the skimmer.

 

The GARF www.garf.org website has some info on plenums and deep sand beds.  It involves a lot of sand movers, worms, etc.  I've done both and as a matter of preference do like a sand bed but wonder if the deep beds may require as much maintenance as corals.  Chuck's Addiction www.chucksaddiction.com has some articles by Ron Shimek.

 

i took some pics of my tank tonight, i'll get them uploaded tomorrow, most the bottom of my tank has zoa's and other things.

i agree i like sand for asthetics, but for ease of maintenance i like BB

 

I have had sand for the last 7 years that i have been in the hobby. I also was one of those people who loved the look of sand especially sugar sand...But with my new cube i painted the foam under the tank black and tried it out and love the look! Makes things look really nice. Sand is great for the first maybe 2 weeks, then it begins to turn colors, blow over to one side, and some how end up all over your rocks and corals. I put on a nice CL pump that is blowing the corals, nems, and fish all over the place and looks natural, but with sand i wouldn't be able to do it!

Best part about BB is you can try it and see how ya like it, and then add sand later. Its harder to take it out then it is putting it in!

 

here is the pic i said i'd get a long time ago, like i said alot of my bottom isn't clean....and its glass....

 

the glass was pretty dirty too... sorry