• 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.

Newly Bare Bottum

R

ReeferNets

HA HA not me my tank

Anyone got any advice besides good flow and to make sure you vaccum.

I like the look of it. Just looking for any advice?
 
R

ReeferNets

Bill you sand lover.....

My clowns went nuts and i cant even begin to imagine what they would do in a 30 breeder with sand.

I think im gonna crank it up from Nano koralias to Koralia 1's . The Nanos arent hitting the front wall.
 
H

harryk

blange3 said:
My advice is to put the sand back! ;D
Click to expand...

I agree with Bill, Something about a bare bottom tank that doesn't look natural to me, but it's all about personal preference. Good luck with it.

Harry
 
P

pitogo

My first I tank had about 2-3 inches of sand and after 2 years I broke it down for an upgrade. It was very stinky, I can only leave it to your imagination. In the new tank I can't believe the amount of stuff I siphon, it would probably collect if I had a sandbed.
 
ricwilli

ricwilli

I have BB and love it. But I also miss the sand. One of my concern is keeping it clean. On BB you don't have to worry about siphoning any sand.

Hey Bill, every time there is talks about sand or BB, your sig always comes to mind. I miss seeing it ever since you changed it.
 
Hawkeye

Hawkeye

I think danny's 180 is BB. The folks that believe in BB are pretty adamant. On the other side of the coin is Bill and those who believe sand is an integral part of the tank.

We have a thread like this every so often. Frankly if we didn't, I'd probably have a lot less posts to read...lol. BB vs Sand and Skimmer discussions...
 
R

ReeferNets

My only reason for posting it, is that we always have people on either side of the fence. I think alot of noobs can get alot of info from our expeirences. I def like the look of Sand, but this new look is good too.

I cant wait for the bottum glass to be covered in zoos and coraline.
 
C

concept3

tried the sand route before, multiple times, it didn't work for me; I've been BB in the tank since then.

then, a few months ago, I added sand in the sump. I wanted to see if adding more organics would color up the SPS better..... Yesterday, I called it quits with the sand so I stayed up till 4am taking it out. With my tank maintenance regimen, the sand does not work for me since I'm a heavy feeder, and I inconsistently and infrequently do water changes. I had multiple blooms of unwanted algaes and cyano, so I pulled the plug.

YOU HAVE TO FiND WHAT'S RIGHT FOR YOU!

How about a picture thread of Sand and Bare bottom tanks? Maybe that could help you decide?
 
ricwilli

ricwilli

concept3 said:
YOU HAVE TO FiND WHAT'S RIGHT FOR YOU!

How about a picture thread of Sand and Bare bottom tanks? Maybe that could help you decide?
Click to expand...

This is a good idea. I can use the help to help me decide wheather to stay BB or go sand. I have seen Danny's BB tank and its beautiful but I have also seen Bill's tank with sand and it is also beautiful.
 
Tazmaniancowboy

Tazmaniancowboy

Officer Emeritus
Officer Emeritus
ReeferNets said:
I cant wait for the bottum glass to be covered in zoos and coraline.
Click to expand...

Wouldn't this be a catch all for the nasties that settle to the bottom and make it hard to clean? I love the idea, but I have had hair algae come up between zoos on my rock and granted I am not the cleanest reefer around, but all I can envision is hair algae growing between the zoos.

Taz
 
blange3

blange3

My intent was some good natured kidding with Barry who is a friend and who has seen my tanks.

But since a serious discussion has ensued.......


Why does Bill like sand so much? Does he just like to argue??

If you piece all my posts together you will also learn, Bill runs VHO only lights, Bill runs low to moderate flow, Bill doesn't use any sort of phosphate binding media, Bill keeps primarily Euphyllia and other large polyped stony corals.

In other words, Bill is keeping a turbid back reef or lagoon ecosystem with high nutrients, modrate flow and lighting; which holds the most aesthetic appeal for Bill's personal taste! ;D

The answer comes down to what you like and want to keep. IF I liked sticks, acro's, etc as much as everyone else I would have high flow, low nutrients, halides up the wazoo and a faux sandbed. There is a lot more work and a greater need for tightly controlled parameters when you keep SPS, which raises the work to pleasure ratio in a way that I don't want to buy into.

In other words you need to run balanced ecosystems that give enough pleasure to you so that you will invest the necessary resources to maintain them long term.

I guess I'll always be an intermediate reefer as I will continue to focus on LPS and softies. I'll leave the SPS to the more advanced, more energetic and more financially secure reefers. ;)

BTW I believe that all newbie reefers should start with a softie tank with easy to keep corals. Then you should graduate to the more forgiving LPS. After you've proven yourself cpable and dedicated enouhg, then you can take on the SPS. But that's just my humble opinion. 8)
 
J

Jcurry@wesketch

ReeferNets said:
... I def like the look of Sand, but this new look is good too.
Click to expand...

The idea of strong lighting, live rock and a skimmer for filtration and a bare bottom tank is not new. :eek: It's actually better known as the Berlin method of reef keeping and has been around since the 1980's. The German aquarists that developed the system were primarily concerned with growing Acropora and other SPS corals. Which at the time had limited survival rates in the home aquaria.

As Bill has already mentioned in his very elloquent post (a lot of good info in that post Bill) it really depends on what corals you want to keep. I also promote the use of sandbeds and like Bill I keep only soft coral, LPS and RBTAs with moderate flow, VHO lighting and relaxed water change schedule. ;D Are you seeing a trend here?

ReeferNets said:
I cant wait for the bottum glass to be covered in zoos and coraline.
Click to expand...

I added a sandbed into my tank in the early nineties because the bottom of my bare bottom tank was covered in zoas, gsp and other corals which trapped the detritus in between their stolons. The detritus could not be vaccummed out without killing or damaging the corals and this lead to some serious algae problems. I'll admit when I added the sand I had lots of problems with algae and cyano but I attribute that to several factors. 1. I used to stir my sandbed every week(I never stir of even touch my sand bed anymore). I also didn't have any organisms to maintain the sandbed. I now keep 2 tiger tail cucumbers and plethora or cerith snails in my tank and have never had an issue with algae on my sand bed again.

It always comes back to determining what types of corals you want to keep, what their natural habitat is and simulating it as best as we can.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top