Bare bottom

[CarlaW]

You guys are great!!!!!!

And gosh darnit, it's almost time for the Bud Shootout. Talk to you later.

 

[fishermann]

Charlie Thats why I've been postin today, I've been watching speed all day, man I wanted Crocker to do better, oh well. Yeh it's time to go downtown to the LS and get some martini fixin's and beer. Your an okay guy yourself even though your an Earnhart fan. LOL! Boy I bet that well raise a few hackles. LOL! John

 

[CarlaW]

Charlie Thats why I've been postin today, I've been watching speed all day, man I wanted Crocker to do better, oh well. Yeh it's time to go downtown to the LS and get some martini fixin's and beer. Your an okay guy yourself even though your an Earnhart fan. LOL! Boy I bet that well raise a few hackles. LOL! John

Yeah, there goes the beer I was gonna buy ya. That's alright tho, go ahead give me a ration!!!!!!
Don't get mad, get evener

 

[fishermann]

:lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol:

 

[vwmoneypit]

this says it all

:idea: this is a very deep and truthfull opinion and sums it up thier is no fault just trial error and answer!!!!!

Hey Charlie, here's my 2 cents worth.

I ran DSB first for several years, then switched to BB for about 2.5 years, now I have a shallow sand bed.

Here's my take on BB and why a lot of people think it is superior:
BB allows you to see detritus as it builds in the tank. It is right there sitting on the bottom. No sand to blend with, nothing. You can direct your flow to bloe it all into one place and suck it out on a regular schedule. This is what I did and it worked very well. You can easily adjust flow without spraying sand everywhere. Outside of that, I see no other "tangible" benefit. It just makes it easier to export the detritus.

DSB
To me a DSB is a means to an end. It is a nutrient sink and it works very well to do that. I dropped nitrates from well over 100 ppm to nothing in a short period of time with a DSB. I personally don't like the space they take up, the longer term mainenance issues, or the visual detraction from the tank of having several inches in clear view (there are ways around this, but that is not the topic here).

SSB
I like the look of sand. I like some of the animals that need sand to be happy and healthy (conchs, sea cukes, wrasses, some gobies, etc.). I also think the tank is brighter due to the reflection of light off the sand. Finally, after diving in the Caribbean, my vision of a coral reef includes sand....no way around that for me. As a result, I switched to a compromise. I use a shallow sand bed to achieve the look I want, provide the sand the animals need, and still allow the flow patterns to collect detritus that I can remove.

Bottom line on this one, in my view, is that you just need to pick what maintenance you are willing to deal with. I think people try to make this a god vs. bad too much when it is really a maintenance issue. You have to get the detritus out before is breaks down...doesn't matter how, it just has to be removed. For this I use an inverted 2 liter bottle with the bottom cut of to "vacuum" the sand on water changes. This keeps it clean, and gets detritus out. So far I am quite happy with the results.

Incidentally, on the pest topic. My tank was doing great for 5-6 years when out of nowhere something decided that SPS taste great and ate its way through my entire tank. I suspect it was the little carnivorous starfish as I can see plenty of them in my tank now (hopefully starving and dieing a painful death). I have always had these, but never had problems. It's hard to say what killed the tank, but this is the risk when we bring in items from the wild where there are checks and balances and put them in our systems that lack the balances. QT is good, but things will come through....fact of life.

Good luck my friend...and keep us posted with pics

 

[CarlaW]

:idea: this is a very deep and truthfull opinion and sums it up thier is no fault just trial error and answer!!!!!

Truthfully, this whole hobby is trial and error.
Some people seem to be luckier than others, but that is just an opinion.

 

[vwmoneypit]

this is true and the look of the tank is a big part

 

[sihaya]

Little off topic... but I know a guy (coral keeper/researcher) who is using a new kind of bottom. He cuts out solid chunks of coral keystone to perfectly fit the bottom of his tanks. It's really cool looking. It looks like a sand bed, but you can siphon and clean it as if it were a BB. He's going to write up something about it soon (I hope).

 

[Scooterman]

Mike (MoJo) has told stories of guys doing this years ago, neat the way they seal it up & everything, nothing new though.

 

[sihaya]

Yeah, I'm not sure it something the average hobbyist could do either... but it does look pretty sweet.