Went bare bottom!

[CasaReefer]

What a Disappointment... Not what I had thought... :(....lol . But I am excised to see how this goes for you I love the way tanks look with no sand.. I might want to set my next tank up this way.. Thanks for Sharing :)

 

[brandon429]

these are neat work testimonies collecting. I myself have a dsb (after naming all bad stuff about them lol)

its not an impact to my tank because i just clean it. * in testing i once went 9 years without touching it and it still worked fine, but seeing the first sprigs of hair algae popping up on rocks plus a takedown cleaning to clear out invasive red mushrooms seemed like the right time to make my old reef accessible, and now i clean the sandbed once every year or two. I clean it by rinsing in tap water for 40 mins

removing a bed instantly is the same effect as tap watering it, boiling it etc. sandbed bacteria dont matter during removal time do what you will with them.

*friends with old untouched sandbeds are reading and thinking we might be hating on old school Berlin, nope. viable option for those who can run it.

its just fun to collect hard work threads to show a new way of controlling outcomes, more tools in the belt options.

 

[Tuan’s Reef]

This guy looks pretty darn happy lol

 

[Tuan’s Reef]

some quick numbers:

Alk - 8.0 dkh - hannah checker
Phosphate- 0.02 ppm - hannah checker
Nitrate - .25 ppm - Red Sea Nitrate Pro

filtration: filter floss on both over flows with a bag of carbon in the media caddy. Skimmer getting dark skim, running on the dry side. Chaeto is grown on the other side with reverse photo period.

Dosing: was using the Jebao DP-4 dosing B ionic Alk,Calc,Mag . Now dosing manually by hand for accuracy so i can closely monitor and regulate.
AquaVitro Fuel ammino acids on seldom occasions
Red Sea Trace A,B,C,D also on seldom occasions ....once every couple of weeks


my Mag and Calc has also been stable at 1350 and 415-410 respectively so i expect them to be the same....until i actually test them tomorrow.

 

[brandon429]

You can grossly overfeed a bare bottom system occasionally that way all the corals eat better than they ever have before, and since there's no sand catch points all you have to do is still the pumps a while, siphon out all the stuff that settles to the bottom + water will stay pure

Even if you do blast feedings just a few times year it'll put your corals into a positive growth mode. Disease resistant, that's one hungry coral

 

[PanaReefer]

i siphoned all the water out but only put back 9-10 gallons of old tank water. It’s a 20 gallon IM Nuvo 20. The rest of the old tank water I used to scrub my live rocks.
Will take closer pics of the rocks as well.

It’s been about 36 hrs since the change and all is well. Acans , zoas , montis , lps, sps all good with PE.

tank looks clean and clear...so far so good ...Knock on wood lol

Will have to try it out but I have a 75 gallon tank, so will have to prepare my self 1st.

 

[Tuffloud1]

Would doing a very thin layer of large grain sand, just enough to cover the bottom glass give a similar effect as being completely bare bottom?

 

[naterealbig]

Would doing a very thin layer of large grain sand, just enough to cover the bottom glass give a similar effect as being completely bare bottom?

Unfortunately, no. I love the bare bottom methodology, and I have used it many times. My current tank has the largest footprint of any display I have had yet, and here is my problem.

When I kept a barebottom before, I could always go in and scrape the bottom - I like the bottom of my barebottoms to be pristine. Unfortunately with such a large footprint, scraping the bottom is not feasible anymore. Fore this reason I added a thin layer or large grain sand. I am able to kick up the flow (75x right now - all constant speed), but the sand still traps detritus (not a lot, but it is still there). It is easy to clean - I stir it up once a week using a long handled scraper.

It does not however, operate with the ease that I found with my true bare bottom systems.

 

[Nereaga]

I was out of hobby for 12 years, which my mixed reef was a BB 75g RR setup. Insane flow and zero algae.

In May, I inherited a 50g bow front from a buddy who neglected it. About 50lbs of rock/sandbed. I could never stop algae growth, mostly GHA. I scrubbed, siphoned, water changed daily for almost 2 months. Running GFO, aggressive skimming, feeding every other day with clean LFS Reef Frenzy food. I couldn’t beat the GHA to save my live.

I was positive the sandbed was nutrient soaked from previous owner using well water to top off and do WC’s.

Torn the tank down, threw rock, water, fish and corals in stock tank. Scored a sweet IM Nuvo 20. Cleaned rock lightly, added livestock. Life is good.

 

[brandon429]

I use a six inch sand bed but it's simply occasionally cleaned. Years of impaction being prevented is the goal, use any sand you like. After some time, clean it fully all at once, or rip it out, doesn't matter as long as pre nitrate is exported occasionally


I noticed in Mike Palettas complex build he didn't opt for a sand bed. Accessibility would be hard with forty pound acro antlers in the way

I use a sand bed only bc nanos have it easy at access time. I noticed about once every fifteen months was good cleanup interval, that's not much work. I surgically clean the tank every couple years, 14 yrs.

 

[Kzang]

Was tired of detritus buildup and ugly algae and gunk built up on my rocks so I took out all my rocks and scrub them all except the one my Nem was attached to. All sand removed and inhabitants was added back after the tank was thoroughly cleaned.

Hope nothing goes wrong. All fish and corals is happy in the new setting.

More power to ya, but I enjoy a lot of the sand burrowing wrasses, and my fighting conch

 

[brandon429]

Hey these guys are able to keep wrasse beds clean before getting accumulations

Anywhere a wrasse dives in/ likely no accumulations blast cleaned spot

 

[brandon429]

https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/my-white-sand-method.252861/page-5#post-4449703

 

[jason17star]

I went bare bottom and im never going back, hate getting sand everywhere.

 

[old salt reefer]

I went bare bottom and I'm never going back.

Same here.