Thinking of going bare bottom!

[FitoPharmer]

Originally Posted by MacheteAvenue

raw marble tile

awesome! do you find corals grow faster on the marble tiles?

[LeeR]

Originally Posted by FitoPharmer

awesome! do you find corals grow faster on the marble tiles?

just as fast as on rock

[whatcaneyedo]

Its mostly personal preference I guess. I'm a sand person, always have been always will be. I tried BB in my frag tank for a few months but I didnt like even in there it so I put back a very fine layer.

[Reefer Rob]

Ya, I like the look of sand, but I have to have the flow, and my Wife's been asking me to go bare bottom for a long time. The 2 Dart pumps I have for circulation worked OK while my corals were small, but with everything filling in they're just not cutting it.

Seeing the amount of flow in Ian's tank made me re-evaluate my current setup. I noticed that the flow from my return pumps was no longer making it to the center of the tank, and the polyps were weren't moving like they used to.

It's time to make some changes. I'm pretty sure if I just let my tank keep growing in without adding flow it's heading for a major crash.

[mseepman]

Originally Posted by Reefer Rob

Ya, I like the look of sand, but I have to have the flow, and my Wife's been asking me to go bare bottom for a long time. The 2 Dart pumps I have for circulation worked OK while my corals were small, but with everything filling in they're just not cutting it.

Seeing the amount of flow in Ian's tank made me re-evaluate my current setup. I noticed that the flow from my return pumps was no longer making it to the center of the tank, and the polyps were weren't moving like they used to.

It's time to make some changes. I'm pretty sure if I just let my tank keep growing in without adding flow it's heading for a major crash.

Rob I looked around but couldn't find a FTS of your tank....want to include it so we see what you're going from before you pull the sand?

[GreenSpottedPuffer]

Noooooooooooooooooooooooooo!!!!!!

I just saw a picture of your tank in your sale thread and was just thinking of how amazing it looks! Don't do it!

BB looks so unnatural and often times kind of sterile. I think most people try to recreate what might be found in the ocean and on all my dives so far, I have yet to find any glass bottoms I guess most reefs are not all that natural looking because we tend to choose a wide variety of corals from many different areas but going BB is just taking it to another level of unnatural.

I would say in your case, your tank is so nice and working so well, why change anything?

Don't take this the wrong way but it won't look anything like it does now if you remove that nice white sand.

[Reefer Rob]

Originally Posted by GreenSpottedPuffer

Noooooooooooooooooooooooooo!!!!!!

I just saw a picture of your tank in your sale thread and was just thinking of how amazing it looks! Don't do it!

BB looks so unnatural and often times kind of sterile. I think most people try to recreate what might be found in the ocean and on all my dives so far, I have yet to find any glass bottoms I guess most reefs are not all that natural looking because we tend to choose a wide variety of corals from many different areas but going BB is just taking it to another level of unnatural.

I would say in your case, your tank is so nice and working so well, why change anything?

Don't take this the wrong way but it won't look anything like it does now if you remove that nice white sand.

The sand can always go back in if I don't like it. Been wanting to do the Zoa bottom thing for a loooong time.

Damn, now I have to add Rics too!

[Reefer Rob]

Here's one taken on the Jan 23rd. Shows the sand a bit.


Tank size is 180G 6' x 2' x 2'

For flow I have a Dart (3600 GPH) closed loop split 4 ways, and a Dart return (about 2400 GPH with head loss) split to 2 Wavy Seas.

Hoping to add a Maxjet Mod on a Wavy Sea on the back wall (where the frag rack is), likely rotating 10 or 15 degrees each side of pointing straight forward.

I going to have to find the original propelor that came with the mod kit I bought from Chin Lee. I had switched it to a lower flow prop because the original flow could stir up the sand at the oposite end of my tank. That's a problem that''ll be fixed tonight

[kien]

My bottom is bare right now! Oh wait.. was that TMI ??

Actually, I am a sand person too. I tried bare bottom for a period of time in my previous 90 gallon and loved it. However, when I set up my new 150 I found all that bottom glass lacking something so I put in a sprinkling of sand. I like the look of both, but in my current tank I just preferred having sand.

If you have the correct configuration with the tank, aquascaping, flow equipment, etc, you can maintain a decent amount of flow without blasting the sand bottom. For example, powerheads like the vortech have a nice gentle wide area of flow which is great for corals and won't blast your sandbed. There are lots of great SPS rich tanks out there with sand bottoms. I wouldn't personally suggest that every SPS tank needs super amounts of flow. Good quality flow is key, not necessarily lots of flow. It just happens that a lot of times to achieve the proper quality of flow, cranking up the amount of flow follows, but is not always necessary.

[mark]

Start of the zoas on the BB (one on the left just pulled out fr under the LR so looking sad)