goldendreamer Posted February 28, 2006 Share Posted February 28, 2006 looking for ideas on how to maintain my first bb tank Link to comment
Steve973 Posted February 28, 2006 Share Posted February 28, 2006 Just like normal - weekly 20-30 percent water chagnes, and aggressive skimming. Don'd feed flakes, don't overfeed, and don't feed any coral foods that you don't have to refrigerate or freeze. Maximize flow since you don't have to worry about sandstorms. Link to comment
Mr. Fosi Posted February 28, 2006 Share Posted February 28, 2006 What are the reasons to go barebottom? Link to comment
Steve973 Posted February 28, 2006 Share Posted February 28, 2006 The short version of the methodology is something like this - rather than letting detritus fall to the sand and have it slowly break down and eventually turn into nitrates, you don't give detritus a place to go. Rather, you keep your flow pretty high and skim everything out before it gets a chance to break down. You can siphon any "dead bits" off of the bottom as well. So it allows for a more aggressive removal of "crap". It's not a bad idea if you're serious about SPS. Link to comment
Mr. Fosi Posted February 28, 2006 Share Posted February 28, 2006 Do you think that a sandless tank would translate into pumps that exhibit less signs of wear-and-tear? Also, do you think cerith snails would mind not having sand to burrow in? Link to comment
Steve973 Posted February 28, 2006 Share Posted February 28, 2006 Wear and tear? I suppose it's possible. Sand is a pretty abrasive media, but actually that never entered my mind before. I'm only two years into the hobby, so I really haven't had anything other than bulbs wear out so far. I've had cerith snails, and they seemed to be quite happy crawling over glass and rockwork, so i don't think it'd be a big deal. Currently, I have a barebottom tank. However, I'm in the process of getting stuff together to upgrade to a drilled 29 gallon tank, and I plan to have some coarse sand in there. The bare bottom has been successful, but for some reason i want to try going back to sand. I plan on getting a cucumber and a sand sifting starfish to help keep it clean Link to comment
goldendreamer Posted February 28, 2006 Author Share Posted February 28, 2006 i have decent overall flow (i have a 200gph unit on my 2 gallon, but turned low, maybe 100gph?), but it is just from the HOB, so it doesn't hit the ground. also, i have so many rocks that it makes getting a siphon down there a real pain. soooo, i have a ton of crap building up down there. i like that it's not mixing with sand, but in don't really know how to get it out. would it be better for me to get aparticular cleaning creature that would have a field day down there, or to just agitate the hell out of the bottom when doing my water changes (i do 50% weekly, so i would be getting significant amounts of crap out of there by making a detritus cloud and then siphoning half of it out; i am only concerned that so much detritus hitting the corals woudl bother them (mushies so far)... why no flakes? i have 2 neon gobies, so i don't know what else they'd like? Link to comment
neanderthalman Posted February 28, 2006 Share Posted February 28, 2006 try cyclopeeze. pretty much everything likes cyclopeeze. Link to comment
goldendreamer Posted February 28, 2006 Author Share Posted February 28, 2006 why would that be less messy than flakes? Link to comment
apophis924 Posted February 28, 2006 Share Posted February 28, 2006 Bare bottoms are easy to clean and maintain, and if you are lucky you can get a colony of shrooms to cover the bottom and have Coraline algae fill in the gaps. Not to mention i have seen my share of bare bottom tanlks and they are awesome. I still go with the shallow sand bed. But in time I think I am thinking of doing one more tank that is BB if I can find some custom cut Black or Dark Blue Starboard. If anyone knows a source hit me up. Link to comment
Steve973 Posted March 1, 2006 Share Posted March 1, 2006 goldendreamer, frozen cyclopeeze is much better than flakes. Flakes disintegrate pretty rapidly and leech all kind of crap into your water. Frozen Cyclopeeze is very clean and concentrated. Link to comment
goldendreamer Posted March 1, 2006 Author Share Posted March 1, 2006 would it be better for me to get aparticular cleaning creature that would have a field day down there, or to just agitate the hell out of the bottom when doing my water changes (i do 50% weekly, so i would be getting significant amounts of crap out of there by making a detritus cloud and then siphoning half of it out; i am only concerned that so much detritus hitting the corals woudl bother them (mushies so far)... anyone? Link to comment
Mr. Fosi Posted March 1, 2006 Share Posted March 1, 2006 I would just agitate it and siphon/filter it out. If you are running some sort of filter or mini-fuge, you can let filter floss catch all the stuff that you miss in the siphon, then change it out. Link to comment
Steve973 Posted March 1, 2006 Share Posted March 1, 2006 goldendreamer, in a two gallon tank, you're limited with the number and types of scavangers that you can add to your tank. You could begin to agitate the sand while you're siphoning, but I wouldn't do the whole thing at once. If your sandbed hasn't been disturbed before, you might release pockets of nastiness into your tank that won't be so good for it. I'd start with the very top layer and go a tiny bit deeper each week, or maybe only mess with the top half of your sand. how deep is it? Link to comment
Mr. Fosi Posted March 1, 2006 Share Posted March 1, 2006 Do you have a sand bed? I gathered form your previous posts that you have a barebottom tank... Link to comment
Steve973 Posted March 1, 2006 Share Posted March 1, 2006 Do you have a sand bed? I gathered form your previous posts that you have a barebottom tank... That's correct - I don't have a sand bed. I started with "live sand" then I moved my tank and replaced that stuff with ultra-fine bagged sand, and then I ended up removing that stuff. When I upgrade from my 18 to the 29, I'll be using some coarse sand, and see how that goes. I'm always trying new stuff. It keeps things interesting. Link to comment
goldendreamer Posted March 2, 2006 Author Share Posted March 2, 2006 goldendreamer, in a two gallon tank, you're limited with the number and types of scavangers that you can add to your tank. You could begin to agitate the sand while you're siphoning, but I wouldn't do the whole thing at once. If your sandbed hasn't been disturbed before, you might release pockets of nastiness into your tank that won't be so good for it. I'd start with the very top layer and go a tiny bit deeper each week, or maybe only mess with the top half of your sand. how deep is it? i have a barebottom tank dude... never had one before, this thread is to see if it would be easier for me to make a cloud of crud from the barebottom adn siphon out 25% of total water volume, while crud is suspended in it, twice weekly, or if i should get critters (i'd imagine crabs... ) Link to comment
Steve973 Posted March 2, 2006 Share Posted March 2, 2006 You can use your siphon tube and just suck the stuff off the bottom of the tank. Link to comment
goldendreamer Posted March 2, 2006 Author Share Posted March 2, 2006 my rockwork makes navigating the bottom extremely difficult, i won't be able to get nearly as much out that way as if i just make a cloud and siphon from that... if i have an aquaclear fuge running, i figure i woudl put something in there as someone suggested to catch the pieces that the filter pulled in, but since it pulls through the bottom of the refugium, should i just pull all the stuff in there out into the tank? Link to comment
deacon hemp Posted March 2, 2006 Share Posted March 2, 2006 GD i'd say you have almost too much rock in there.The tank im building right now will be BB but it will have only one peice of LR so i can lift it out w/ ease and siphon everything out. apophis924 theres a place local to me that sells black starboard and they ship? and since its in canada the converstion will probably cover the shipping? www.plasticworks.ca Link to comment
goldendreamer Posted March 2, 2006 Author Share Posted March 2, 2006 GD i'd say you have almost too much rock in there. do you mean that in terms of function or form? Link to comment
onthefly Posted March 3, 2006 Share Posted March 3, 2006 GD - to have a properly functioning BB tank....as previously said, there has to be enough flow along the bottom to "suspend" the crap. Many people who run larger BB tank actually run less rock since they don't have the same demand for biological filtration. A bonus of this setup: less rock = more room for coral growth. In your system, I could easily see that "crap" could be getting trapped behind or under those larger peices and you don't have many access point to siphon. In my set up, weekly siphoning was required to keep up with the shedding while to tank was new. Now, nothing comes out of the rocks and I only have to siphon once a month maybe. What I do is this: 1) turn off all pumps, 2) turkey baste all the rocks to suspend whatever I can, 3) after it settles to the BB, siphon it out, and finally 4) Replace the water. I also run a filter sock 24/7. Link to comment
goldendreamer Posted March 3, 2006 Author Share Posted March 3, 2006 are there any inverts that could potentially help to eliminate some of the stuff down there? Link to comment
deacon hemp Posted March 3, 2006 Share Posted March 3, 2006 Good points OTF.Heres my advise because your tanks so small,and you dont run a sump (so no filter sock)....run a bag of carbon in your HOB and use a powerhead and blow the crap off the rocks and underneath and filter it out.Then do your normal WC,and after that clean out the carbon sack.Like OTF said once the rock stops shedding it wont be needed as much. A nass. snail i have read helps in a BB tank with crap on the bottom. Link to comment
onthefly Posted March 3, 2006 Share Posted March 3, 2006 Hey Deak! GD - Nass snails work well, but personally I've never been able to keep them alive. SeanT over at RC wrote a huge "how to BB" thread. In there, he says astreas and ceriths are the best BB snails. FWIW, I personally like margarita snails....always busy doing sonething! Then again, I also like hermits Link to comment
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