Balancing a Bare Bottom Dry Rock Tank

[Misbar]

Hello,

I would appreciate your advice on my 60 gallon bare bottom acrylic tank (not filled with water yet).

I have heard and read that a dry rock bare bottom tank will be harder to cycle and will have less biodiversity. But should I be worried about this also considering it's my first saltwater tank?

How much more beneficial would it be to put dry live rock in the display instead of just dry rock, and is it worth the risk of pests?


I want a stable tank in the long run and don't want to start the cycle and end up regretting these choices.


Thank you for your time.

 

[MnFish1]

Hello,

I would appreciate your advice on my 60 gallon bare bottom acrylic tank (not filled with water yet).

I have heard and read that a dry rock bare bottom tank will be harder to cycle and will have less biodiversity. But should I be worried about this also considering it's my first saltwater tank?

How much more beneficial would it be to put dry live rock in the display instead of just dry rock, and is it worth the risk of pests?


I want a stable tank in the long run and don't want to start the cycle and end up regretting these choices.


Thank you for your time.

IMHO - dry rock - in weeks is 'live rock'. I do not think a cycle has anything to do with 'biodiversity' - but rather - nitrifying bacteria - which you can easily add. I'm not sure what you're asking about adding 'dry live rock'. First - I would not be worried. There is IMHO - no correlation between long-term stability - and dry vs live rock.

Again My opinion - add the rock, bacteria and either some inexpensive coral or fish - (according to the directions). This is not as complicated as the threads here make it out to be. Until you're adding things that need 'lots of light' - like coral, etc - keep your lights a little less (even if you added fish).

 

[Acrofiend]

I did a dry rock, bare bottom cycle using dr tims ammonia and microbacter start xlm until ammonia/nitrites reached 0. Then used microbacter clean along with brightwell razor daily until I ran out of the clean.
My tank is almost 6 months old and I haven’t had an ugly algae phase like my recent tanks.

 

[Daniel]

Frags and anything else you add will have a gradual effect on biodiversity. It does take a little bit longer, but biodiversity will come with time. Also, sometimes no matter how careful you are, pests still make their way into the system - which is why many folks QT or do a series of dips prior to introducing coral or fish into their displays.

It's a wash in the long haul, so take it step by step and enjoy the evolution of the tank.

 

[Garf]

Hello,

I would appreciate your advice on my 60 gallon bare bottom acrylic tank (not filled with water yet).

I have heard and read that a dry rock bare bottom tank will be harder to cycle and will have less biodiversity. But should I be worried about this also considering it's my first saltwater tank?

How much more beneficial would it be to put dry live rock in the display instead of just dry rock, and is it worth the risk of pests?


I want a stable tank in the long run and don't want to start the cycle and end up regretting these choices.


Thank you for your time.

Dry live rock is no better than dry (non live) rock, in fact you may have to run it a little longer to get rid of the decay. For your first tank, given the choice, go live rock. Dry rock barebottom can get a bit depressing until you get to the top of the hill.

 

[tnw50cal]

I have nothing but bare bottom tanks. they may be a little harder to get going but in the long run are easier to keep going.
NOTHING says you can't have gravel(biomedia) in your bare bottom tank, it just won't be at the bottom of your tank where it will collect detritus. ALL my bare bottom tanks have LOTS of biomedia in the chambers of the sump. I like SeaChem matrix that I keep in SeaChem zippered bio bags. Any water going thru the biomedia is filtered first(whether by filter sock or floss) to keep media clean.
Every day I suck as much of the detritus out of my tanks as I can( takes less than 5 minutes and always collects in the same spots). My rocks touch the bottom glass in very few places so detritus doesn't collect under them. 20% of my detritus is fish poop, the other 80% is snail poop.

 

[Misbar]

Thank you so much for clarifying things!

Reading through previous threads had me a bit confused but I think I understand now.


I've had the tank for months now waiting to be finished up so I think I have the patience to wait a bit longer for the cycle.

Thanks again for your experiences.

 

[Spare time]

Corals will introduce biodiversity so don't worry about that.

 

[Hermie]

Hi just curious, what is your definition of "dry live rock " ?

 

[Misbar]

Hi just curious, what is your definition of "dry live rock " ?

This is what I was talking about: https://www.bulkreefsupply.com/liferock-dry-live-rock-caribsea.html Sorry if I confused anyone with the wrong term(s).

 

[Hermie]

This is what I was talking about: https://www.bulkreefsupply.com/liferock-dry-live-rock-caribsea.html Sorry if I confused anyone with the wrong term(s).

it's virtually functionally identical to dry rock in the long run, they look nice, if you want that look go for it

 

[tnw50cal]

it's virtually functionally identical to dry rock in the long run, they look nice, if you want that look go for it

I got that look(Caribsea life rock), I like it--go with it.

 

[X-37B]

I went 50/50 live and caribsea. If you can, get a few pieces of live for diversity. I have always used 100% live and 50/50 worked just as well with less cost.
I was putting in coral at month 2 and never looked back.

 

[Koigula]

I have a barebottom with textured ABS sheet.

It wasa bear to get up and running versus buy 100 lbs of KP Aquatics liverock. It took two years to starting growing and really more depending on what you call success. I came back from Aquashella Dallas and Sanjay Joshi talked about the same experience. Adding bacteria keeps you busy and his word does not do much. It takes two years. He stated Mike Palleta gave up and tore a dry rock bare bottom down.

If I were to do it again I would add 20 -40# of best quality florida or Hiati live rock up front. This will grow corals in much easier.

Now that is it blooming I up t5s time and intensity and up feeding, while balancing with carbon source wet skimming. I just got aweful amounts of phosphate out of system and phosphates swings were incredible at first. It seemed to go in and out of water like it was sticky or something.

I am now ready to have a tank thread I am not embarrassed about. In past I threw in live rock and in 6 months through in pavona and pocciliphora, then green slimers grew to the top with little testing or efforts with Halides. Now EVERYTHING seems hard.

 

[tnw50cal]

I got that look(Caribsea life rock), I like it--go with it.

This tank was 1 year old on 11/24/21. The biodiversity came in with the coral frags. The gravel(in this case SeaChem Matrix) is in bags in the 1st and 2nd chambers(4 total) of the sump. The chambers are filled to the brim with it and have been since day one.

 

[Koigula]

Corals will introduce biodiversity so don't worry about that.

Nobody really reports failures. I have seen people put in 50 mounted frags in 5 months on dry and the frag rocks are cured and sort of be OK. Others have had disasters.

 

[Big E]

Bare bottom(BB) is getting indicted for no reason and has no effect on difficulty in tank start ups. Dry Rock vs Live rock can be an issue regardless if you use sand or a BB. The BB myth has been perpetuated by those BRS videos which are flat out wrong.

New sand has no bacteria and is inert...........it adds nothing to speed or ease the start of a system. Using live sand is a different story.

 

[Koigula]

I am not a BRS fanboy but sand does add stability quicker or has potential to create stability faster by surface area. Filtered damp ocean sand is also available readily. Colonizing in sand is fatser and "live" prepared sand will work.

I am amazed at amount of detritus I can pull out in a bare bottom tank with active water changes. As a simple experimiment, the dried detritus mixed and filtered will have over ppm Phosphate levels. It is not removable with sand obviously.

On the flip side removing sand in mature system will have a major destabilizing effect. I am more of optinion dead rock takes 2 years to be stable in bare bottom.

 

[Hermie]

Bare bottom(BB) is getting indicted for no reason and has no effect on difficulty in tank start ups. Dry Rock vs Live rock can be an issue regardless if you use sand or a BB. The BB myth has been perpetuated by those BRS videos which are flat out wrong.

New sand has no bacteria and is inert...........it adds nothing to speed or ease the start of a system. Using live sand is a different story.

Lucky for me this information is only important to people that are starting new tanks (of which I don't have any foreseeable plans). Otherwise I'd to ask for evidence that supports your claim.

 

[Koigula]

Lucky for me this information is only important to people that are starting new tanks (of which I don't have any foreseeable plans). Otherwise I'd to ask for evidence that supports your claim.

I would say pick your metors and just follow them. I have excess dead rock 3+ years old now. I have luck following CoralEuphoria and ReefBum Channel. They are both transparent and easy to follow. There are conflicting info every day here. BRS is sort of the wild west and can throw money at things.

I am maxing out Kalk much faster than imagined I would and corals are growing.