Bare Bottom Tank???

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Todd

Aquarium Advice Regular
Joined
Mar 26, 2005
Messages
73
Location
Wisconsin
I went to a LFS then and they suggested going without sand on the bottom of the tank since I am will be using live rock in my tank. He said it will just be hard to clean. Is this true? Has anyone else used this method? I like the look of sand? I was going to use dry sand because I will be using about 80 lbs of live rock and 60 lbs. of base rock to start my 150 Gal. What are your thoughts?
 
Some people go bare bottom, but more go with sand. I am telling you, go with the sand. Looks a whole lot better. Also with sand you have more options with species. You need sand for sand sifting gobies, some starfish, ect.....

The advice from the lfs must have just been there preference... :wink:
 
yep, i agree. i'm not sure why they would recommend lr only.. kind of boring. i shelled out the little extra to get very fine, superwhite argonite sand. i used some crushed coral too just to have a different base under the liverock. it looks kind of like erosion fr liverock to crushed coral to pure white sand. http://www.supa.ca/photos/img_0127.jpg (you can see the base of the liverock in the reflection). 8O

russ
 
Todd said:
I went to a LFS then and they suggested going without sand on the bottom of the tank since I am will be using live rock in my tank. He said it will just be hard to clean. Is this true? Has anyone else used this method? I like the look of sand? I was going to use dry sand because I will be using about 80 lbs of live rock and 60 lbs. of base rock to start my 150 Gal. What are your thoughts?

THere are a lot of discussions related to this on some other forums. I'm setting up a 90g, and have been debating to go with bare bottom, with a DSB in a fuge, or perhaps just 1" of sand. I love the look of sand- seems natural to me..but I am concerned long-term about DSB (which I have now) maintenance or crashes. Many say you won't crash a DSB over time, but the stories I hear about those who do crash aren't pleasant.

I guess there are just preferences in how tanks are run, I don't know if there is any firm evidence that one route is better than others, just pros/cons.
 
I will agree and say that I would not go barebottom. It is really dull looking IMO.

Sand offers you the ability to have more pods IMO. They tend to live in the sand and in the lr. If the sand is not there, I think, it would cut down on the amount of pods you will have in your tank.

Are you going to try and run a reef or just a FOWLR? If you are going for a reef, go with the sand by all means! FOWLR, I guess it wouldnt hurt anything not to have the sand... but I am not sure.
 
I was reading an article in Marine Fish and Reef.. and it reads something about a plenum (water filled void created under the substrate).. I was wondering with my 60lbs of araga-live sand should I do this when I setup or just dump it in? and should I put some in the sump?
 
man if i can recomend some sand, i bought white sand from petco, its from miami florida. It is so fine, and so crisp and white. I LOVE IT
 
Get LS, as it will also speed up your natural biological filter establishment.
 
I was also worried about the DSB going bad but I didn't want a BB tank because I wanted to create a more natural look in my man made ocean in a box. So I decided on only having about 1 1/2" - 2" of sand.

It's really up to you. There are pro's and con's to both.
 
I think I am going to use 2" of sand. I plan on using half dry and half live. This is O.K. right?
 
The faux sand bed is neat but I prefer to have some real sand. It's all up to the persons taste.

DSB crashes = you tank will crash also causing massive amounts of deaths
 
It is personal preference but i have a 4-5" dsb right now and when i move the tank in a couple months it's coming out. I have chosen to go with sps and I personally not into the sand look now. It's all what you like to look at but if you opt to go bb your can build a bottom that looks basically the same without the hassle of sand blowing around.
 
Thumper said:
It is personal preference but i have a 4-5" dsb right now and when i move the tank in a couple months it's coming out. I have chosen to go with sps and I personally not into the sand look now. It's all what you like to look at but if you opt to go bb your can build a bottom that looks basically the same without the hassle of sand blowing around.

So what are you going to put at the bottom of your tank? I'm debating bb vs. dsb right now... leaning towards bb although I want to make sure I can get the benefits of a dsb perhaps via a fuge.
 
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