how many folks, still running bb setup?

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Bare bottom tanks are still running a lot. Lots of live rock, lots of flow and good skimming. The advantage of bare bottom is the ability to increase flow, lower in the tank and not have to worry about it blowing sand everywhere. This way you can keep detritus suspended in the water column better, and it'll end up in the skimmer, rather than settling on live rock or the bottom of the tank.

I don't run a bare bottom tank, because I like the look of sand and because of sand dwelling fish, such as Pistol Shrimp and Goby that I have.
 
I switched to BB a few months back and I love now easy it is to remove stuff from the water and off the bottom!
The only thing I don't like is I can't put SMALL frags on small rocks on the bottom they just get pushed around by the strong flow I have towards the bottom!
When I set up later in the big tank I will have sand in the 125 but the 30 gallon and the frag tank will be BB!
 
cool i see, going bb, need to have more flow, or can handle more flow, next ? flow from a cl setup or other....and what skimmer setup...
 
cool i see, going bb, need to have more flow, or can handle more flow, next ? flow from a cl setup or other....and what skimmer setup...

i have 2 closedloops one runs 6 nozzles at the top and one runs 4 nozzles at the bottom. each pump is 3000 gph and i wish the bottom one was more like 5000. i have 2 koralia 8's coming that will take care of that though
 
I'm gonna run a dual closd loop also!
prolly 6 o top and 6 on bottom
gonna be a pinninsula tank so NO POWER HEADS ALLOWED (says my wife and me)!!!
 
I'm gonna run a dual closd loop also!
prolly 6 o top and 6 on bottom
gonna be a pinninsula tank so NO POWER HEADS ALLOWED (says my wife and me)!!!
yeah i hate all the cords, the 2 koralias are gonna be the only cords in there. the thing is, you cant beat the quality of flow from some of the new powerheads
 
I've been running a BB tank for over 2 yrs in my 20 and now my current 40b. I love the ease of maintenance and the mad chaotic flow that a BB can support like the above mention posts with sand you have a limit of how much water flow you can have in the lower half in order to keep from having a sand storm everytime your water flow switches directions. I have about 70X per hour turn over and with my wavy sea and a K2 attatched to it I get some mad random flow. Majority of the detritus settles in 2 spots in my tank and it makes it so quick and easy to siphon the stuff out during water changes! Here is a quick run down of my very basic bare essential 40b set-up.

Sump- none
Skimmer- CPR bak Pak w/meshed MJ1200
lighting- dual PFO PC 65w actinics, IC 250w driving pheonix 14k DE bulb in a Lumenarc Stealth reflector
Flow- K2 on a Wavy Sea (Love this thing),K3,K4
LR- about 50lbs
LS- 95% SPS
No other major components (actually I have no major components LOL just a simple cave man set up)
Additives- The only things I dose is vodka 1.2 ML daily , magnesium once a week and gravity drip kalkwasser as my top off water about 1- 1.5g per day depending on the day.

You can see the results of my tank in my thread. Here is a link to it http://www.reeffrontiers.com/forums/showthread.php?t=31526&page=7
 
Yep I just came from roscos house and that tank is to the point, I had to change my shorts when I got home LOL JK
 
Im BB since ages ago. So i can siphon detritus at the bottom. Positioned powerheads in such a way that there is a corner that there are no flow or less flow where all detritus are settling. Not much flow on my tank because im a softy/mix tank. KISS approach.
 
Initially, I just wanted to make it as easy for me to learn the hobby so I went with the BB approach, since I figured function before form. My latest setup is a BB solana tank, using the middle chamber as a fuge. I don't see much detritus build up as long as I keep up with the water changes of 5 gal every week or every other week.
 

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