Going BB

bear27 · #1 08-14-2005, 04:52 PM

Well Ive decided to take the plunge and go bare bottom, Ive seen to many positives to ignore it any longer, Dont get me wrong I love the look of sand, but it just to hard to maintain in my opinion, and besides if it doesnt work out I can always put it back.

Any sugestions on how to make this transition with out moveing everything out of the tank

LostMind · #2 08-14-2005, 05:40 PM

wet dry vac?

Dunno how well that works though

BCWolfen · #3 08-14-2005, 06:17 PM

Use a large diamter hose and siphon right from the sand when doing water changes. It will take a long time until your completely bare but you should be able to siphon quite a bit each time.

Skimmerking · #4 08-14-2005, 08:33 PM

WHAT I did was took everything out due to gettign a new window in and then took it all out. I left a bit in the corner for my wrasse , I wish i didnt have him NEON WRASSE too what a pain he's startign to be eating at my snails.

I love the look of my BB clean too.

Beverly · #5 08-14-2005, 08:43 PM

When we went BB in our three tanks, we upgraded tanks at the same time, so we removed everything from the old tanks, got rid of the old tanks, then set up the new ones. Corals, fish and inverts all made it without incident in all three tanks.

Removing the sandbed was horrible

It reeked to high heaven

Anyway, I would remove everything from the tank to be safe. Once you start messing with the sandbed, you don't know how much toxic gas will be released. Also, removing everything will make sure your rock structure and corals don't topple which you'd end up having to rebuild.

Have a bucket of tankwater handy to swish each rock as it comes out. You'll be surprised how much detritus you'll get out of the rock

Dump the bucket when it gets too dirty.

Dedicate a day for the job, so you can reaquascape the tank at your leisure to get rockwork that you really like. And make sure you have lots of extra NSW on hand to make up for the water you use during the cleaning, storage and moving process.

Here's my page on maintaining a BB tank:

http://www.lostmymarblz.com/reeftips...ottomtanks.htm

bear27 · #6 08-15-2005, 01:16 AM

well as it happens I will be moveing in october so I wont have to worry about takeing out the sand and not the rock. know I just have to worry about moveing

not looking forward to it

Saltysteve · #7 08-15-2005, 02:41 AM

Just finished this transition myself. Would have to agree, take it all out. It takes quite a bit of time to become happy with the rock work as well

Moving is good, thats why I did mine!

Best to you!

rickjames · #8 08-15-2005, 02:47 AM

I also took my sand bed out when I moved the tank, it actually makes moving a heck of a lot easier if you know you are just going to ditch the sand bed.