Bare bottom reef tank better?

[jackson6745]

Set this BB tank up 10 weeks ago using live Australian rock that i cured and gave light for 3 months prior. No cycle, no uglies, balanced nutrients where I want to keep them. Hard to say what’s better but this is easier. I don’t have to worry about cranking the flow. Negatives obviously being no place for burrowers to dig. And there’s less surface area for bacteria, which IMO is a non issue unless you start a tank with all dry rock. Dry rock and bare bottom is like trying to wipe your butt with boxing gloves on lol.

 

[Nick Barbier]

You can either use live rock from someones tank or your prior build as long as you keep wet, or I use frytz. With frytz you can add live stock right away. But just dont over do it. Coral is actually a great way to establish bacteria. Low nutrients but still adds for bacteria.

I'm just taking everything out of the tank and putting it into totes just long enough to get the old sand out. Then I will put the water back in, rebuild the rock scape and re-introduce the fish and corals.

 

[Nick Barbier]

Set this BB tank up 10 weeks ago using live Australian rock that i cured and gave light for 3 months prior. No cycle, no uglies, balanced nutrients where I want to keep them. Hard to say what’s better but this is easier. I don’t have to worry about cranking the flow. Negatives obviously being no place for burrowers to dig. And there’s less surface area for bacteria, which IMO is a non issue unless you start a tank with all dry rock. Dry rock and bare bottom is like trying to wipe your butt with boxing gloves on lol.

Very nice! I'm taking everything out just long enough to take out the sand. Then I will add the water back, rebuild the rock scape, and re-introduce the fish and corals. I will also be adding Max Spec Biosphere Balls to the sump.

 

[jackson6745]

Very nice! I'm taking everything out just long enough to take out the sand. Then I will add the water back, rebuild the rock scape, and re-introduce the fish and corals. I will also be adding Max Spec Biosphere Balls to the sump.

Read about the bio media. I know some of them leech aluminum. Not sure if it’s the brand that you’re using. If you’re reusing all the live rock you should be good to go anyway.

 

[Js.Aqua.Project]

So, my next question is how does your tank look? Do the corals and fish all look fine and healthy?

If the only problem is the nitrates then I would address those separately and continue with the carbon dosing, maybe increase your skimming so it's a little more wet.

Poor metaphor time, if the sink in the kitchen is leaking you don't have to remodel the whole house.

If you just want barebottom and believe that is the best solution for your aquarium/creatures, go for it. At the end of the day it is your tank and you're the one that has to be happy with the way it looks/operates.

 

[Nick Barbier]

You bring up a good point. I've always had sand beds in all my tanks for many, many years. And I like having pods, and inverts in my tanks. I just don't like having to deal with old tank syndrome several years from now due to an aging sand bed saturated with nitrates.

I dose daily Oceans Blend 2 part to keep the Alk, Ca, Mg and trace elements in the tanks early in the morning before the lights come on. I've read that doing water changes actually defeats the purpose of adding 2 part or three part solutions. My nitrates are between 150 and 200 ppm. That's one of the reasons I believe my tank is going through OTS. I also dose NoPox, and was doing Red Sea Reef Energy amino acids until was told that it promotes the growth of cyanobacteria. There's so many opinions out there, not sure what to believe.

Have you considered removing the sand vs tearing down the tank? It what I did.

Yes, I would prefer that. But do I do that without releasing all the excess nutrients and nitrates in the sand bed?

 

[Nick Barbier]

So, my next question is how does your tank look? Do the corals and fish all look fine and healthy?

If the only problem is the nitrates then I would address those separately and continue with the carbon dosing, maybe increase your skimming so it's a little more wet.

Poor metaphor time, if the sink in the kitchen is leaking you don't have to remodel the whole house.

If you just want barebottom and believe that is the best solution for your aquarium/creatures, go for it. At the end of the day it is your tank and you're the one that has to be happy with the way it looks/operates.

The fish seem to be doing fine. However, there is cyanobacteria in the tank and it's attacking my corals. I've dosed with red slime remover and reef flux, but it just keeps coming back.

 

[exnisstech]

Can you post a few pics of your BB tanks?

I forgot but this one has a section of sand on the end where the derasa is. This tank will be coming down and everything moved to a new tank. It will be BB
Left end with sand

Right end

This one looks a little bare. I recently moved the LPS I had on the bottom

This one was full barebottom until I saw a blue haddoni I had to have so I added sand in the center area. The nem stayed front and center for a year then moved to a back corner. I'm removing the sand now as I do water changes. this is an older shot when it was full BB

Yes, I would prefer that. But do I do that without releasing all the excess nutrients and nitrates in the sand bed?

I removed a 3-4" sand bed from my 180g. I just vacuumed the sand into a bucket as I did water changes over time with no ill effects

 

[Nick Barbier]

Very nice tank!

 

[kdmkdm69]

I started a 90 gallon tank with mainly dry rock some live rock from a previous build and some wet/live bioballs. It has taken almost 10 months for the tank to really start to mature. Everything is staying relatively stable now and I love not having sand maintenance. I will say it’s tough going to the store and ignoring the diamond gobys and most of the wrasses and all the other sand dwellers.

Ignore some of my ticked off corals I’ve been going through some lighting adjustments lol

 

[vetteguy53081]

I'm breaking down my 125g mixed reef tank with a 9 year old sand bed and am thinking about going with a bare bottom tank. But I have a few questions first.

1. Is a bare bottom tank better than a tank with substrate?
2. Which type of tank takes longer to cycle?
3. Which type of tank is more stable?
4. Would adding Max Spec Biosphere Balls to the sump increase the stability due to more surface area for nitrifying bacteria?
5. Can I use bio balls in the sump to replace the sand in the tank?

Ive done both and bare bottom does offer light leak below th stand to sump which for me was Not a bad things. The glass bottom though dd acquire algae and was nor fun to clean

 

[MoshJosh]

Bare bottom > sand. . .

If only we could get all that sand out of the ocean we might have a shot at saving the reefs. . . sad

But for real, all my tanks are BB!

 

[Jcampise51]

You can use any bio media but
If you use live rock nothing else is needed.
This is my old 120 bb. My new 170 will also be bb.
The 120 was started with 50% live and 50% caribsea dry rock.

What’s this sps here? The Teal one

 

[X-37B]

What’s this sps here? The Teal one

Original Surf and Turf stag.

 

[Garf]

live Australian rock

That's cheating. Make life as difficult as possible by doing dry rock bare bottom.

 

[Reefasaurus X]

Bare bottom is the way to go IMHO. i have a piece of beige acrylic sheet siliconed to the bottom. It looks natural, and I have no issues with excessive nutrients. My skimmer and rocks take care of them. Other than for aesthetics, if feel sand is an unnecessary headache. FWIW

 

[Reefasaurus X]

Bare bottom is the way to go IMHO. i have a piece of beige acrylic sheet siliconed to the bottom. It looks natural, and I have no issues with excessive nutrients. My skimmer and rocks take care of them. Other than for aesthetics, if feel sand is an unnecessary headache. FWIW

I love that white bottom look. How do you keep it from getting covered in Coraline?

 

[vtheglad]

I'm breaking down my 125g mixed reef tank with a 9 year old sand bed and am thinking about going with a bare bottom tank. But I have a few questions first.

1. Is a bare bottom tank better than a tank with substrate?
2. Which type of tank takes longer to cycle?
3. Which type of tank is more stable?
4. Would adding Max Spec Biosphere Balls to the sump increase the stability due to more surface area for nitrifying bacteria?
5. Can I use bio balls in the sump to replace the sand in the tank?

1. "Better" is subjective. Some says it's better to grow SPS (I see tank with both see success) - If it's related to #2 - regarding Cycling it's the amount of Surface area (sand has lots of it) #5 + #4 - I usually recommend big bioblock. Easier to move/change etc. Sphere has less surface area for the same block (#math) diameter

3. Stable or not is dependent on the Volume of water and total surface area. (water column vs. surface to grow -biofilms). More surface area may also need circulating. How deep your sandbed or how coarse/fine your sandbed is...i'm sure there are another thread to select one.

Some peeps do the ground down corals skeleton instead. more "natural" that way instead of fine sand.

The Cons of barebottom is that it is prohibited some sand dweller (wrasses, nassarius snails, Gobies, Conches, pistol shrimp, etc) Cool things and cool corals... Kinda boss you're in certain inhabitants. I love my Melanurus, xmas, black-backed china wrasse too much to do barebottom.

 

[Charles Zinn]

I'm breaking down my 125g mainly because of old tank syndrome. The 9 year old sand bed is saturated with nitrates and I can't seem to lower the nitrate level no matter how many water changes I do or how much NOPOX I dose. I am so not looking forward to having to put new live sand in it. I've never had a bare bottom reef before, but I've always wanted to try it. If I do go bare bottom, what brand of beneficial bacteria would you recommend to supplement the bacteria already on the live rocks?

have you checked with aquaqbiomics, more than likely a biological or pathogen issue. diversity of clean up crew or inverts weill be limited if you go bare bottom.l You may just need to diversify more

 

[strich]

Personal opinion: I think bare bottom tanks look ugly and unnatural.

Disclaimer: Not an expert, but...
I don't agree having sand is an unsolved long-term problem re old tank syndrome. However you do need to care for it like any other organism in your tank. It needs to be sifted either by you or your invert crew. Do your own research ofc, but you just need a few specific types of snails or conches to start with.