bare bottom?

[t_hac]

hey everyone!

i most likely going to buy a aquapod 12 or biocube 8, reason being the watts per gallon is 4.5 where as the biocube 14 is only 3.4

anyways i contemplating wether or not to do a bare bottom tank.?

or the regular sand bed 2-3inch

i am going to have it a coral only tank with no fish only some inverts...

whats your opinion on bare bottoms? (hehe no pun intended :rolleyes:)

[Rbacchiega]

I've always liked the look of sand in a tank...

[t_hac]

I've always liked the look of sand in a tank...

yea i like the look too but this one is all about the corals and im wondering if its a big + to have BB,

but i also dont like the look when theres a bunch of algae growing out of it and its all dirty :razz:

[Rbacchiega]

you could always get a conch...barebottoms to me, although they have their advantages...don't seem to turn my crank (bahahahahaha).

Plus, if you're only going corals, I don't imagine there'd be a whole helluva lot of detrius on the bottom so long as you're doing regular maintenance...could be wrong, but that's my opinion

[mark]

Be surprised how many people will be looking at my tank then after 10-15 minutes go, 'I just noticed, you've got no sand'.

If you do go sand, just go a enough to cover the bottom, a 1" or less.

[Snaz]

I have 1 - 1.5 inches of sand in my AP12 and I don't have any algae on the surface. I'm not sure which critters are keeping it clean but I suspect the 12 small hermits are shifting it enough. The only algae the tank has ever had is the 2 day old brown haze on the glass which the magfloat cleans in a jiffy. Oh and LOTS of coraline!

I slope my sand high in the back, shallow to front so the sand at the front is level with the black trim.

[mike31154]

No comment on the BB, but you mention a difference in watts per gallon that you are basing your purchase decision on. What type of lighting are we talking about here for either the aquapod or biocube? If you're going to keep corals you may be well advised to concentrate more on the type of light output rather than watts per gallon. The difference in light output for given watt of the different options (MH, T5HO, PC) is substantial. Watts per gallon alone is no longer a good indicator of what's best for your livestock.

[Whatigot]

IMO, the only thing bare bottoms are good for is spanking:twised:

I ran a heavily stocked aquapod with no skim for a year and I contribute my success to the 5' of crushed coral I had on the bottom.
Pod city and excellent bio filtration...
In a larger tank, I don't think it makes as big of a difference, but in a smaller one, makes a big dif.

[t_hac]

No comment on the BB, but you mention a difference in watts per gallon that you are basing your purchase decision on. What type of lighting are we talking about here for either the aquapod or biocube? If you're going to keep corals you may be well advised to concentrate more on the type of light output rather than watts per gallon. The difference in light output for given watt of the different options (MH, T5HO, PC) is substantial. Watts per gallon alone is no longer a good indicator of what's best for your livestock.

yea i know, for now all i can afford is the stock lighting so i am looking at the most wattage i can get... and if the bulbs arent cutting it ill replace them.

the aquapod has the sunpaq pcs which apparently produce %50 more lumen output than comparable bulbs...

so thats what im leaning for.. the most power for stock lights, i know t5/mh is better i had a t5 fixture on my 55 and saw the difference from my pc light on the type and output that they give off...

[t_hac]

IMO, the only thing bare bottoms are good for is spanking:twised:

I ran a heavily stocked aquapod with no skim for a year and I contribute my success to the 5' of crushed coral I had on the bottom.
Pod city and excellent bio filtration...
In a larger tank, I don't think it makes as big of a difference, but in a smaller one, makes a big dif.

yea i am now leaning to having a small amount of substrate to keep the pods happy and i forgot about the bio filtration, since i have no skimmer this will be a +

[gbeef]

I'm running bare bottom in a 14Gal biocube my setup has been up for 4 months. BB for me is easy to clean thats why i do it. People dont notice its bareness factor. I also had a 7gal a couple years back. same thing loved how easy it was to clean.

Do you like the look of Cyano?
This is the main reason why i have barebottom ive had bad cyano outbreak in the past with my 55Gal. It seem to be caused by the sand bed absoring photospate and too much debres.

I know people have had different opinons also on sand. I love the look but i cant stand the maintance. Thats the trade off. Also its easier to add sand later then remove. If your on the fence you can always go BB now if you hate it add sand.

[Whatigot]

may be the case at first, but once established, which can take some time, there is no better, simpler tool in a smaller systems filtration.

[MCC]

Watts per gallon means nothing... all three choices of your tank is power compact...IMO the same "power" and usage... PC lights just aren't good either way... either way with any of the mention tank you are going with the same corals... you won't be keeping any SPS..and the LPS will be placed higher in the tank... as for Calms..good luck...

So I would get the biggest tank you can afford... if you are new to saltwater...the bigger the tank the easier for you to maintain...you will just hit a road block with a 8 gallon...

As for sand.. i didn't read the other posts...but sand is added biological filtration just like liverocks... so without sand you will be losing some filtrating power... IMO

[Boomboy]

i personally like the look of the sand, i wouldnt go deeper than 1" though, no reason in nanos, you just do water changes. its alot easier to do water changes on a nano then it is on a larger tank, where 10% is 1 gallon instead of 10, also if you have a larger tank, you make more water than needed and use the rest for the nano.