Team Bare Bottom

[NorthGaHillbilly]

Glad to hear I'm not alone guys, and gals. Its funny how so many corals are said to be "low flow" yet Ive got plenty of LPS floppin around in the flow and there happy as can be.

 

Mr. Microscope, I probably aught to follow your lead and have a clean bottom, but mines just strewn with corals (not as much as Lawn's tho)

 

current FTS

DSC_0427 by North Ga Hillbilly, on Flickr

[Spiderguardnano]

Crappy photo but officially part of Team BB

Will be doing a water change tomorrow to take out all the junk that made it from the old tank

 

[MadReefer13]

I run bare bottom now..I ran sand only for my first tank for a year and a half it was OK but a lot of algae and problems with it..so when tank crashed on vacation started over Bb tank was amazing but dident like look so put sand and back come algae oooo boy....so when switched over from the ten gallon to my now 20l I went Bb again and will never go back.. unless I end up wanting a goby or somthing

[Spiderguardnano]

Here is a shorta betta pic

 

[Psychosis]

Sand 'till I die fools. If you're going to run BB, hacksaw your rocks flat and lay them on starboard. Pro tip.

[Lawnman]

Sand 'till I die fools. If you're going to run BB, hacksaw your rocks flat and lay them on starboard. Pro tip.

Did this 2 months ago. Where you been killing people?

[dillct]

for those using starboard....how thick? gap or tight fit?

[JMarcink91]

I am running BB in a 9g and I am liking it so far. Suck out the detritus and the tank is clean. No algae bloom from the sand or bacteria such as cyano. I do have a hang on refugium tho so my pod growth is still good. If you have room you can put a container with sand in the tank and your fish can burrow in there. Saw a guy on instagram that has a wrasse like that

[ninjamyst]

I really like the natural look of sand. What about having a VERY VERY thin layer of sand? I think I will start taking more and more sand out of my nanos every water change. The amount of detritus trapped is ridiculous.

[Psychosis]

Did this 2 months ago. Where you been killing people?

 

Moving in to a house, in processing, etc etc. Keeps me busy and poor.

[Spiderguardnano]

I really like the natural look of sand. What about having a VERY VERY thin layer of sand? I think I will start taking more and more sand out of my nanos every water change. The amount of detritus trapped is ridiculous.

So ridiculous when I moved tanks I couldn't believe how much was in my tank

[Scorched]

Sand all the way!!

 

I don't need much sand, just enough to cover the bottom. Its vacuumed with each water change. It stays white and all the gunk is pulled out.

 

The dirty coraline covered glass at the bottom is so unnatural looking.

[Arkayology]

Why do we need sides? Can't we all just get along?

[rocksmom]

I am running BB in a 9g and I am liking it so far. Suck out the detritus and the tank is clean. No algae bloom from the sand or bacteria such as cyano. I do have a hang on refugium tho so my pod growth is still good. If you have room you can put a container with sand in the tank and your fish can burrow in there. Saw a guy on instagram that has a wrasse like that

Hi neighbor. We did this is an old frag tank. Had a green coris wrasse and kept a container of sand for him. He slept in it every night, but was easy to clean or change out if needed. I wouldn't recommend it with a fish that spends all their time burrowing though.

[Hart24601]

Here is my experience with BB. I have a 14g cube that I started with around 2" of sand. It was bulletproof, started with softies, then lps, then lps and sps trading the older corals for new ones as I went along progressing to all stonies. Got led then upgraded... Normal story. 2 years later I had a really nice system, fragging sps seeming weekly. Of course this whole time I couldn't ever reach the sand to clean, the corals were too big.

 

Around this 2 year point I noticed algae and cyano popping up for the 1st time! I battled it quite a while and couldn't understand why it was happening when for years it was clean. I had the rocks out to scrub carefully as they had lots of encrusting coral on it and I happen to notice the little bit I disturbed the sand there was a lot of nasty in it. I then made the big mistake, I tried to stir it to clean.... It was horrible. I mean I can't even describe how nasty it was. I was shocked. Needless to say it was bye bye sand. Never again will I have sand in a nano. I ended up crashing the tank from my mistake, transferred what I could but the encrusted guys all died. I might do a thin layer in a large tank with a good skimmer, but I am bb in my new 110 and not considering sand.

 

Nano with stony coral they grow too large to maintain a sandbed. Plus my tank is pretty full with rock so you don't notice the bottom much with zoas and some encrusting coral on it.

[skrapsessej]

Was barebottom for a while but once it starts getting dirty and covered with algae/coraline it isn't very pleasing to the eye. Plus it's a pain to clean.. Half an inch sandbed I think is the way to go on nano tanks.

[Psychosis]

I'm still suprised Jedi hasn't popped in with a Kate Hudson picture to cover bare bottom.

[Lawnman]

Was barebottom for a while but once it starts getting dirty and covered with algae/coraline it isn't very pleasing to the eye. Plus it's a pain to clean.. Half an inch sandbed I think is the way to go on nano tanks.

We strive for the bottom to be covered in coraline .