• Folks, if you've recently upgraded or renewed your annual club membership but it's still not active, please reach out to the BOD or a moderator. The PayPal system has a slight bug which it doesn't allow it to activate the account on it's own.

BB or SB

blange3

blange3

Yep,

It is largely a product of what you will keep and what type of maintenance your are willing to do.

I keep softies and lps, happy with changing water.

Someday I'll make the choice between The Sandman or RetroReefer for a new screen name. ;)
 
R

REEFLECTIONS

is there a corelation with softies and sand, if you keep lps is sand the better way to go, or is it just that you might not want to use sand with sps?
 
blange3

blange3

REEFLECTIONS said:
is there a corelation with softies and sand, if you keep lps is sand the better way to go, or is it just that you might not want to use sand with sps?
Click to expand...

It's more that many SPS thrive in very low nutrient environments, which are easier to achieve and maintain without sand.

There is some benefit to softies from the microfauna that multiply in the sandbed, especially if you give it a good stir now and again.
 
C

concept3

blange3 said:
REEFLECTIONS said:
is there a corelation with softies and sand, if you keep lps is sand the better way to go, or is it just that you might not want to use sand with sps?
Click to expand...

It's more that many SPS thrive in very low nutrient environments, which are easier to achieve and maintain without sand.

There is some benefit to softies from the microfauna that multiply in the sandbed, especially if you give it a good stir now and again.
Click to expand...

in addition to low nutrients, a tank without substrate enables one to place a plethora of water turbulence inducing mechanical devices. It's a lot easier to place them in a tank without sand rather than very carefully and strategically placing them so as not to create huge dips/holes in the sand. I remember a Maxijet 900 fall in my old tank (this was before the magnetic holders were out)- boy oh boy, sand in the impeller, electricity and salt water do not mix!
 
A

agent007

agent007 said:
I really do like the look of the sand - when its relatively clean - but it seems I'm loosing that ability.
I think most of my sand snails (Nassarius snd Ceriths) have died or will die shortly. I can relocate the live
ones to the fug. I am concerned about my LPS and soft corals though. Can hammer, frogspawn and open brain coral survive with in a BB tank?
Click to expand...


Soooooooo, what I think you're saying is in my case I may have an issue switching to BB with the LPS that I have now. I love those guys :-\ This is going to be a tough decision.

The way my tank is setup, it would really benefit if I could crank up the water flow but there is a limit when
you have SB. Is there anyway I can keep a BB with the coral I have?
 
C

concept3

agent007 said:
agent007 said:
Can hammer, frogspawn and open brain coral survive with in a BB tank?
Click to expand...

Absolutely- I raised this brain coral from near death to full recovery in a Bare bottom frag tank
brain.jpg

brain1.jpg



The way my tank is setup, it would really benefit if I could crank up the water flow but there is a limit when
you have SB. Is there anyway I can keep a BB with the coral I have?
Click to expand...

You can keep any corals with either option of substrate. However, keep in mind that with SB, you are correct in being creative with the positioning of water flow. Tom has his numerous powerheads aimed at the surface which creates turbulence within the tank and indirectly to the sand bed. He has it positioned so that water flow is max within the water columnn. In time, a Sand bed will get slightly "packed" which comes with age. Older/mature sand beds will be able to handle a good amount of flow, given it is indirect from the powerheads.

I have kept bubble coral, elegance coral, pumping Xenia and open brains in my tank with no substrate, but they did not like the amount of flow since my tank was pretty much blasted continuously. I was able to keep them happy by placing a rock in the water flow's path, or keeping them completely away from the current's direction. A more random flow instead of linear is also preferred, mimicking the natural ebb and flow of reef currents in the reef.

Here's Phyl's Scoly story associated with water flow-
http://www.njreefers.org/joomla/index.php?option=com_smf&Itemid=26&topic=11597.0
Click to expand...
 
C

chaoscat

I'm wrestling with this decision now myself as I'm setting up a new tank. It sounds like a bare bottom would be easier to maintain. But, I'd also like to be able to keep wrasses and gobies that need that sandbed. I've always run my tanks with a Jaubert plenum on the bottom and had no algae issues, BUT, I've never had one of these run continuously for much more than 2 years. Plus, the aragonite grade is probably too course for these animals.

Argggh. I'm frozen with indecision on this frigging tank. What to put on the bottom of the tank? What to put in the sump? I'm very close to just trying to set my sump up as a plenum system, but I don't know how well that's going to work with 400-500 gph running through it.

When is this hobby going to get easy?
 
P

pnoyreefer

I have a starboard bottom on my 180g and its been up for 2 1/2 yrs and the advantage I have is I can max all my flow without creating any sandstorm and also easy to mentain. The only downside is I can keep some wrasses which I would love to have on my reef tank .
 
JRWOHLER

JRWOHLER

chaoscat said:
I'm wrestling with this decision now myself as I'm setting up a new tank. It sounds like a bare bottom would be easier to maintain. But, I'd also like to be able to keep wrasses and gobies that need that sandbed. I've always run my tanks with a Jaubert plenum on the bottom and had no algae issues, BUT, I've never had one of these run continuously for much more than 2 years. Plus, the aragonite grade is probably too course for these animals.

Argggh. I'm frozen with indecision on this frigging tank. What to put on the bottom of the tank? What to put in the sump? I'm very close to just trying to set my sump up as a plenum system, but I don't know how well that's going to work with 400-500 gph running through it.

When is this hobby going to get easy?
Click to expand...

Never will be easy.
For what it is worth I have at least that flow going through my sump without any issues. The water just cruises over the top without much movement on the rubble and sand below.
 
C

concept3

REEFLECTIONS said:
so does anyone keep lps such as hammers/torches/frogspawns with a bare bottom? i know zoos, shrooms, and rics are ok, but are all?
Click to expand...

sure, why not? (i have in the past) in the reefs, these are not located near nor need substrate to survive. the big thing is the water flow. most people with bb have a tendency to crank the flow up, just because you can. i also have wrasses right now, but they sleep between rock crevices at night in their slime coccoon.
 
W

waynes reef

i personaly like the sand bed, as posted, there is no bare bottom ocean, ye sreefs are isolated from the ocean floor by rock and dead coral, but the micro organisms that dwell in the reef that need the sand arent, i have not cleaned my sand once in over a year, its mostly cleaned by snails, crabs, pods and whatever else is down there, i have lps, softies and sps in my tank, all are thriving, the only algea bloom i had waas one month into initial setup, none since, no hair, no bubble and no slime, i have 4 koralia 4"s blasting current on wave timers and no sand storms but plenty of flow up top for my sps to thrive, once in a while ill get a tan coating on the sand but after being patient for a week and not disturbing natures process, its white again, imagine that. so my opinion is deep sand no matter what coral you want, allot of bio diversity down there i believe is crutial as long as your patient and allow it to mature
just my opinion
 
J

jonathan.

pnoyreefer said:
I have a starboard bottom on my 180g and its been up for 2 1/2 yrs and the advantage I have is I can max all my flow without creating any sandstorm and also easy to mentain. The only downside is I can keep some wrasses which I would love to have on my reef tank .
Click to expand...

Why not try the old "hide a tray of sand somewhere in the tank" trick so they can sleep at night. If you can hide it in the back somewhere, it'd be out of sight, too!
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top