The Pros & Cons of BB Reef tank?

[Akwarius]

The answer is flow then. I have a 6ft barebottom with one mp40, one mp10, and about 1200gph out of the return. The detritus is killing me- it starts to collect just a few days after I turkey baste it.

Thinking about adding a wavebox to suspend the detritus in those hard to reach areas.

[brandon429]

those ultra bb tank pics from both of you guys are really super impressive. It was giving me tons of ideas and really the most appealing look was the clean lines and it was really different compared to a reef we've all seen 10000x times packed to the sides with a sandbed. seeing these pics where you can see the support strutures cleanly installed surrounding a mound of live rock really high quality is a refreshing change to the average setup where its just piled on the floor. +10

[Adam]

I understand that the idea of having BB is to keep it as clean as possible.. I also understand that this is impossible to do One thing I wanted to achieve was making sure that all the detritus will collect in easy spot to reach. And I did it.. with Votech MP40W on right side it simply circulate to the left (opposite side of tank) and then down under the egg crate rack.. and the heavy poop will settle down on the very right bottom part of the tank, where I can rich with thin (about half inch) acrylic pipe to suck it all out while doing water changes. Also the return pump nozzles are pointing to the the back glass wall of tank which will push anything from back to front and then with the Vortech pump to the right

 

During a week days I use turkey baster on my rock and set my vortech in detritus remove mode and all that goes to filter suck in sump (change it every 3-4 days).

 

I do not mind have some detritus in tank to feed on some other species in tank.

 

I did have one big problem.. my skimmer pump start leaching electricity and killed quiet a few things.. then I got algae bloom but now everything is back to normal..

[Adam]

here is another one pic.. I need to take some better quality pics at some point.. this was taken shortly after thank was set up..

[eksblenny]

Wow Adam very nice setup. I hate sand so I go BB. I also use starboard.

[luvmyacans]

What would you guys suggest as a clean up crew for a BB reef?

[Shaggy420]

i am running bb in my display and on my frag tank

pros:

nitrates are virtually undetectable

no sand storms so you can have all the flow you want(around 24,000gph in my 210 now+wavebox and return pump = )

looks kinda cool with the reflection off the bottom glass

lighting the bottom isnt a real problem either, since its glass

cons:

as previously stated, you have to siphon the crud off the bottom

limits your fish choices some(since some sleep, hide, or live in the sand)

it takes some getting used to.......i had always had sand before i upgraded to this tank and it did take a while for me to get used to the bb look. there were times when i debated on adding sand but i decided against it.

 

HTH

 

did u notice any pros of being BB that you couldn't achieve as easily with Sb?

[snostorm]

....I have had both. I much prefer BB. At first I hated the idea, I wanted that natural look. I moved a tank and disturbed a 3 year old sandbed and it wasn't pleasant. Regardless as seen in this thread, there is nothing wrong with the look of a nice BB tank. My 29g as very stable, the rock takes care of business. I have good flow and skim wet with a remora. Run Chemipure in a HOB. There is coraline all over the bottom of my tank along with polyps and mushrooms. I really do not feel like I am missing anything with out a sand bed.

[everl0ng]

i'm bb on my 5.5, but i painted the underside of the bottom glass with the sandy textured paint from lowes. i can have higher flow with the color of sand on the bottom.

[MusicISUnlimited]

hmmm. personally i prefer a sand bed, due to the fact it looks more natural. If you establish your bed correctly, you should have no problems at all. Yes it may take time, but in the end i believe that it is worth it.

[SoS]

BB look awful the first year or so. Once they grow in they don't look to bad. They never do get that natural feel of the sand bed though.