I am setting up my 55 gallon 36 x 18 footprint tank that will contain primarily sps coral. I want to have a high flow rate from the wave maker and am afraid with a sand bottom I won't be able to crank up enough flow in the small tank without creating a sand storm. What are your thoughts on doing a bare bottom for my setup?
Bare Bottom
- Thread starter Reefried
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When you say crank up what kind of flow turnover are you thinking? Just wondering
I am not sure on total GPU, what do you suggest? If I do bare bottom then I can aim flow towards the bottom to keep any waste from collecting
Bulk Reef Supply did a ULM (Ultra Low Maintenance) series recently with three 60 gallon tanks... softies in one, LPS in another, and SPS in the third. All were bare bottom. The first two did well, but the SPS tank failed. Ryan attributed it to going bare bottom in that size tank and indicated that a bigger tank is better for going bare bottom with SPS. Not trying to discourage you; just giving you a different angle to think about. I've never tried bare bottom personally, but from what I understand the first year can be difficult without sand as the tank tries to stabilize. You can always start bare bottom and add sand later if it is not working out, or start with sand and remove it (very slowly over weeks though).
Thanks for the suggestions, I started the thread to get some help deciding whether to do a sand bed or not. I will do some more research on what you are stating with a smaller tank. How much flow do you suggest in the tank size that I am setting up?
Not sure about tank size for bare bottom, but I may rebuild my tank soon and am thinking of going with a sand colored cutting board on the bottom of the tank and no sand in the dt. I am not sure how they look after a couple of years, but the pics I have seen of new installs online look pretty good.
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Whenever I run barebottom tanks I still have sand in the system... Just not in the display. I hate two frag systems which are naturally barebottom tanks but there is a large amount of sand in the sump.
For flow, I have a deep Blue 80g tank (24" X 48" footprint), bare bottom, about 800 gph from the return pumps and 2 Maxpect 250 gyres running at 100% in alternating gyre mode (that's 5,300 gph). Lots of flow!
Don't worry about the bottom as it should get covered with coralline fairly quickly.
Don't worry about the bottom as it should get covered with coralline fairly quickly.
@Reefried, @dball711 knows his stuff. He's got a lot of awesome SPS.
@dball711 Wow, that is a lot of flow. So you are at 10 x going through the sump and 66.25 x flow with the two gyres. As they are alternating, are they ever both pushing water at the same time while ramping? Michael of AaronsAquarium on YouTube was talking about his gyres recently. He said he has always used them at the surface, but recently angled them downward at the coral and has had way better polyp extension? Have you experimented with different angles?
@dball711 Wow, that is a lot of flow. So you are at 10 x going through the sump and 66.25 x flow with the two gyres. As they are alternating, are they ever both pushing water at the same time while ramping? Michael of AaronsAquarium on YouTube was talking about his gyres recently. He said he has always used them at the surface, but recently angled them downward at the coral and has had way better polyp extension? Have you experimented with different angles?
So do you think I should go with a bare bottom or sand. I have a wavemaker and can run a couple of hydor pumps and will have alot of flow from my return pump. The tank is 36 x 18.
I have a 120g with 1400gph return, two mp40 and three tunze pumps, i have sand in the tank, but it won't stay in the front. I personally like sand in a display tank, my frag tank is bare.
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My all time favorite "Bare Bottom Tank" was posted here some years ago. Dave "Acroholic" has past away. Dave gave so much to help the Atlanta Reef Club. Dave always took the time to help others pursuing a community of reeflife in our homes.
Dave showed me something that I would have never dreamed could have happened with a "Bare Bottom Tank". I would like to share the link of his "Bare Bottom Tank". https://atlantareefclub.org/boards/...est-465-gallon-sps-reef-pictures.37343/page-2 . What a beautiful arrangement of life in a home aquarium.
Wannabee
Dave showed me something that I would have never dreamed could have happened with a "Bare Bottom Tank". I would like to share the link of his "Bare Bottom Tank". https://atlantareefclub.org/boards/...est-465-gallon-sps-reef-pictures.37343/page-2 . What a beautiful arrangement of life in a home aquarium.
Wannabee
Sorry I missed this...Yes 10X through the return and 66X from the gyres. Sand as a substrate wouldn't have a chance in this set up! They run in opposite gyre mode against each other form left to Right. I angle one side of the fire up a tad toward the surface and the other more downward toward the coral. Since my display is only 16" deep, most of the flow hits the corals and that's what I'm aiming to solve for, more flow to the corals = better distribution of nutrients in the water column.
What I have learned is that too much flow at the surface affects my surface skimming and overflow meaning the water level in my sump is affected and I need to avoid that. I'm running all in one tanks with sumps that are relative small, about 8g in my 80g display. If the water level fluctuates much it raises heck with the ATO.
This is a hard one to answer because it's really up to personal choice, some folks really like the look of substrate, some don't. You could experiment and always add or remove at a later date. If you go with sand I'm a firm believer in having a regular maintence in place to avoid problems down the road. In my experience a sand bed can be a ticking time bomb waiting to go off, thats just my opinion and I know I may get flamed for that statement but thats my opinion! Just one less thing to clean or possibly go wrong.
Happy reefing!!!
What a beautiful tank
I like the look of a display with substrate.
There is sand & there is gravel. The difference is in the size of the particles, with correspondingly different stability in currents. Sand has less, larger gravels have more.
Many, including myself, have found a happy medium using Caribsea Special Seafloor grade 1-2mm size. I believe it's still the most popular size used.
Caribsea also has Florida Crushed Coral which is larger at 2.5-5.5 mm, Caribbean Crushed Coral at 3-6mm & Aruba Puka Shell at 7-25mm (that's 1 inch!) which should be increasingly resistant to blowing around. So you might choose and/or experiment, if you prefer to have the look of a substrate in your display.
There is at least one other major vendor of marine aquarium substrates, so you might want to look around.
caribsea.com
There is sand & there is gravel. The difference is in the size of the particles, with correspondingly different stability in currents. Sand has less, larger gravels have more.
Many, including myself, have found a happy medium using Caribsea Special Seafloor grade 1-2mm size. I believe it's still the most popular size used.
Caribsea also has Florida Crushed Coral which is larger at 2.5-5.5 mm, Caribbean Crushed Coral at 3-6mm & Aruba Puka Shell at 7-25mm (that's 1 inch!) which should be increasingly resistant to blowing around. So you might choose and/or experiment, if you prefer to have the look of a substrate in your display.
There is at least one other major vendor of marine aquarium substrates, so you might want to look around.
Marine Substrates - CaribSea
ARAG-ALIVE!™ ARAGONITE CORALINE™ OCEAN DIRECT™ AQUACULTURE GRAVEL ARAG-ALIVE!™You can now bring the world’s most exotic reefs into your home with CaribSea’s Arag-Alive!™ substrates. Eight environmentally accurate ecoscapes, developed through CaribSea’s cooperation with public aquariums and...
caribsea.com
