Bare Bottom Tanks

[StirCrazy]

Originally Posted by Funky_Fish14

Steeve, im guessing the lower flow is in the tank with the sand-bed? With higher flow the algae tends to be discouraged. But im not arguing that sand-beds are better. Im making a prop-system soon, and It is going to be BB(except for the fuge).

Chris

well kinda not really, the hair algae I have in the SPS tank is directly in front of the tunze I placed to blow along the bottom, so I have algae in the highest flow area. I think this is because the flow is creating an O2 rich area along the rocks but I could be out to lunch also. also the rocks have a lot of detritus that I never got off them in that area. but as I pull the algae it is taking the crap with it and leaves clean rock.

the small tank has about a 10X turnover but is a 3 year old sand bed. I believe that the bed has adsorbed so many nutrients that they are now starting to come out. because sand beds cannot function properly in a home environment (as mentioned above... to little bugs and not enuf types) the theory now is they act like a nutrient sink, adsorbing and adsorbing until they are full. because we can not make the function properly they cannot get rid of the junk but only store it and eventually it hits a critical mass where it cannot adsorb anymore. Also with a BB allowing you to have a much higher flow rate though out the tank you can cause crap to be suspended in the water column making it easier to be removed by the skimmer which is also why I think my SPS tank is doing better than the other.

Steve