Observation

[Jaws]

Any reccommendations on things to place on the bottom that will grow and spread quickly? I really like the look of Ricordia but it's so hard to come by and takes so long to grow.

[Aquattro]

I'm thinking coralline algae will grow pretty quickly. You could put zoos along the front, but getting the nice colors locally could be tough.

[Beverly]

Originally Posted by Jaws

Any reccommendations on things to place on the bottom that will grow and spread quickly?

Thought of that, but with stuff growing on the bottom, you impair or lose the ability to siphon out crud.

We do our siphoning in two stages, beginning by removing the powerheads to be cleaned. First stage is to siphon out the crud that is easy to get at. Second stage is we get out the turkey baster and blow the crud from under the rock to the back of the tank, then siphon out that crud. You can't imagine how much extra crud we siphon out during the second stage, probably more crud is removed the second time than the first

[rodsboys]

My biggest question about the BB setup is what do you do about the creatures that use the sandbed for cover like snails and wrasses?Do you just avoid these creatures all together or do they still thrive?

[Beverly]

Tony,

I have a fairy wrasse in my 120g and a flasher wrasse in the 67g. Both hide in the rock at night and seem to be doing okay with the BB. Don't know if these two wrasses need a sandbed, though, which is rather stupid of me Some do such as leopard wrasses, yellow coris wrasses. For the most part, I avoid at all costs gobies and other animals that require sandbeds. I feel it isn't worth the stress the fish has to go through living without their natural sandbed environment.

[Jaws]

I imagine mandarin's would be out of the question then eh? I was thinking some kind of spray bar with a smaller powerhead attached at each end might work well under the rocks as well. Only plug in the powerheads when you're about to siphon out the tank.

[Aquattro]

Originally Posted by Jaws

I imagine mandarin's would be out of the question then eh?

Nope, I think they'd be fine. Pods live in rocks, not sand.

[Delphinus]

I think I saw my fairy wrasse bury himself in the sand, only a handful of times. (Like, maybe only 3 or 4 times.) Most of the time I'd find him wedged into a crevasse in the rock somewhere so I guess, at the least the species I had, is flexible in the bedding-down choices.

When I had scooter blenny/dragonets I noticed they would bury themselves in the sand, to sleep. You'd just see an eyeball sticking out of the sand and that's it.

But my psychedelic mandarin, he just finds a spot to settle down, and turns off his colour, and that's it. He'll be just there on top of the sand, perfectly asleep. I've never noticed if he's buried himself into sand.

Anyhow hope this random rambling is of some help.

I myself can't seem to tear myself away from the idea of a sandbed. Not yet, anyhow. I did put only a fraction of sand into my 90g from the defunct 72g, and I put rock down first so there's only sand in the open areas and none under the rocks (unless there's an opening in the rock that sort of allows it). I see worm tracks and tunnels and such in the 1" of sand I did put in .... so I have to believe that something is using the sand, and that something benefits the tank by adding to the overall biodiversity .... but other than that I can't really add too much quantification.