Carpet, Hardwood, or Crushed Coral?
 

New Guy again....question of the day to my reef friends in Calgary.

When I built my house it was carpet vs. hardwood.

Now that I'm building a salt water aquarium its sand vs crushed coral, and add to that the live-sand angle.

I want to work toward having a little of everything in my tank as time and experience permits....a few fish, a few corals, a few anemones.

What would you put on the floor of a new 120 Gallon Fish House?

Thank you!!

Mike

My vote is for sand.

I like the look of fine aregonite also. :biggrin: (Not too deep though. )

I'm still for a sandbed too - mine is about 3" on average, nice mix of grain sizes.

I vote bare bottom.

Steve

Thanks Steve, you are on to something here....

"Bare Bottoms" seem to have a following...for more reasons than I can mention here. I found this thread on another site. Very interesting.

http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/sh...e&pagenumber=1

Comments welcome.....

Thank you!!

Mike

Could someone fix that link please. :question: It is no good now.

Works for me.

Depending on the type of anemone (and please don't keep a "few"), you may need to provide some sand. I'm joining the bare bottom gang, although I do prefer the look of fine sand.
I think if you do use sand, only put it in areas that you can see and clean, meaning not under the rock work.

Hi Bob...great for you to join the discussion....an honor.

I snuck in and fixed the link (rookie mistake).

What would you put on the bottom?

I have to say I'm leaning towards a very thin (1 inch max) sand mix of some type.


Mike

He doesn't need bottom substrate! Bob would cover the whole bottom with zoos! :lol:

I'm not fully converted over to the bare bottom gang yet, I'm still stuck on the "look" of 1" of sand or so,

but with that said

If you are considering BB, what Brad says is true about "depending on the type of anemone". Some anemones do feel the need to attach underneath the substrate (e.g., Stichodactyla haddoni). The trick for these is to create a small pocket of "portable DSB." I.e., small rubbermaid container, or some kind of acrylic box, or even large diameter (e.g. >= 6" ) PVC pipe. Filled with sand, then the anemone can attach to the bottom through the sand. Camoflage the container with small rocks and so on, and away you go.

So you should still be able to consider BB with some sand-needing animals.

reply
 

Keep in mind that a bare bottom tank will inhibit some of the wild life you can have. You won't be able to keep species that rely on a sand substrate. IMO, if you don't have a sand bed you make your tank look fake, you might as well have fake rocks and corals too.

Re: reply
 

Really?? Have you ever seen a BB tank in person? My tank certainly doesn't look fake, and I think fake corals and rocks would be a big downgrade.

I just moved my 300G with a sandbed into a 270G with a BB and the BB look is growing on me :eek:

I think that when I build the new tank I am leaning towards a VSSB ( very shallow sand bed ) of a inch or so in open areas only and do weekly vacuuming of detritus. When I get tired of cleaning it I will just vacuum it all up and go BB :lol:

reply
 

IMO

Yes, I realize IYO. Just asking if you've seen a real live BB tank. I thought it would suck also, but it does not detract from the overall look, IMO ATOOOTHSTT (and the opinion of others that have seen the tank)

BB with Starboard. I have a deep sand bed in the sump. No fake coral, just thriving real ones, and it looks great IMO.

Dave

I would guess that the "look" of a BB (that part that doesn't sit well with me anyhow) could maybe be improved by simply placing smaller pieces around the bases of the larger pieces. As I've said before the hardest thing for me to get away from is that it just looks like "rocks placed on starboard." Short of filing some pieces flat (way too overboard) I'm thinking that just some simple disguises would probably work.

Having gone DSB, plenum, short sandbed and bare bottom in previous tanks my favourite is still the short sandbed for looks. I've gone back to it in my 90g and now I have some few hundred pounds of sand I'm not sure what I'm going to do with. I'm thinking of planting my mangroves in it in a 'fuge idea or something.

Anyhow I've never tried starboard (I keep thinking I'm calling for right of way everytime I say that) so maybe the white bottom is just that magic answer to complete the look of BB ... I don't see it in the pictures though, but maybe it's just one of those things you have to see in person.

Even with 1" of sand in my 90g (and none under the rocks so much) I notice small amounts detritus accumulation in spots ... so ......... who knows.

Great info everyone...thanks.

What is Starboard and where do you get it.

If I go with a thin layer of sand, I would like it to be quite white. Any suggestions?

Mike

Starboard is the plastic material cutting boards are made of. I'm not sure where people are finding it (someone pipe in here and fill in the blanks please).

Aragonite sand is white, that's what I'm using.