Officially BareBottom

[wrightme43]

And I dont have any sand in my tank either. LOL
I removed the sandbed in my tank today. It sure looked clean, untill I disturbed it. What a mess. I have all of the rock back in, and another 40 gallon batch of saltwater mixing. All large corals are placed, and all frags and smalls are in a strainer in the tank. I am waiting for it to clear back up for finally placement. I will post photos when I get it cleaned up and rearranged.
Steve

 

[bradreef]

finally, about time, way to get onboard the BB express, you would go BB.

 

[wrightme43]

I put my pants back on. I just left the sand out of my reef. LOL
Looking good so far.

 

[NaH2O]

Steve - do you think you could post your reasonings as to why you made the switch? Are you redirecting or changing the flow pattern in the tank?

 

[reedman]

Welcome to the club Steve. I think you'll like the ease of removing detritus with a BB.

 

[wrightme43]

Sure Nikki, quite simpley it was the amount of just junk that came out of the sand bed, with every turkey basting. I was not having any algae blooms or problems. I just didnt want to wait until I did. I have the sand in a 20 gallon tote now. I will go and take a pic of what is in it. I used a strainer to sift all of the sand away from my hermits and snails and little pieces of live rock. Only problem is it also kept all the tube worms. So I have a bunch of sand covered tube worms in the tank bottom now. Overtime if will be able to siphon out the last of the junk. I switched mainly because the best looking corals I have seen come from bare bottom tanks. The corals look to me to have more color, which would make sense because the levels of nasty should be lower, letting the coral shine thru instead of a lot of extra overgrowth of zooanthee. Hope this made sense. It did to me. Steve

 

[ribbetribbet]

when i started of my new tank i layed the bottom in 5 layers.
1. layer of under gravel filter plate.(not attached to pump or air stone,just free standing)
2. layer of flyscreen end to end covering the plate.
3. layer of coarse coral (crushed) 1" high and end to end
4. layer of flysrceen end to end
5. layer of coral sand.
after a few months this starts to from a naturale surface upon which bacterial colonies can thrive which in turn in improves the water.
this methed of laying was given to me by a marin nut! and so far after 2 years it has worked and my fish and coral don't get pissed with all the water changes. dose anyone else use a layer system as well and dose it work for you !

 

[wrightme43]

Cool I think that is refered to as the plenum system here. I like that system, the end result over time can still end up being aquarium composting. Here is a photo of one year of a sand bed, with new aragalive added at set up. Also some photos of my tank clearing up from the ordeal. LOL also a pic of my tank on 6-10-04 with the young sand bed.

 

[ribbetribbet]

if you would like to look at my tank go to my photo gallery. the tank in not finshed yet i run out of money, but i started a new job 6 weeks ago and am planing on upgrading this year to a big tank i am hoping on building a 12 foot tank in to the wall of my launge room when i add on ito it.

 

[wrightme43]

Cool, I like that blenny. That was a huge elephant ear sponge. Whats it like in New South Wales Australia? Its been in the upper 70s F. here all week with some clouds but mostly sunny. Supposed to get hot this week. 90sF.

 

[ribbetribbet]

well it's very cold it's snowing 10 min drive up the road it's going to snow down to 600m tonight! (very cold)

 

[wrightme43]

Try and stay warm. I just really dont like the cold. At least you have your reef to look at and think warm. LOL

 

[CarlaW]

Great job Steve, looks real good. Just make sure you keep us updated on some of the changes. I'll be interested to see what happens in the next 2-3 weeks, considering the wholesale changes you made.

 

[wrightme43]

Yeah but what about the retail changes? LOL
So far, I have noticed that every thing is a whole lot cleaner. Also the skimmer has stopped producing as much skimate and now it is more green and watery, than black/brown and thick. Will probley have to adjust it down. Everything looks happy so far, except my rose bulb, I had to move it and it is still trying to find its happy place. I know it was drastic, but I think it was for the best in the long run. Steve