bye bye sand bed, hello rock bed. Opinions?

[khaosinc]

Most the sand bed is gone. I think once it gets some coraline going and I infest it with muchrooms/ricordias and various toadstools and the occational anthillia and xenia forest I think it will look pretty good. Going to take a while to get used to it. Used about 150 pounds of 'nano' sized marco rock so far.
http://i6.photobucket.com/albums/y228/Khaosinc/new%20tank/003-8.jpg
http://i6.photobucket.com/albums/y228/Khaosinc/new%20tank/002-8.jpg

http://i6.photobucket.com/albums/y228/Khaosinc/new%20tank/004-8.jpg
http://i6.photobucket.com/albums/y228/Khaosinc/new%20tank/005-6.jpg

the last of the sand it waiting until I have a new tank finished. waiting on bulkheads and starting on building the stand today. Didn't notice the 240 was a 99" long tank and the stand I was planning on using won't work.

besides I don't want to move my 'old west' frag rack at the moment. I'm sure I'm going to be moving a rock here and there for a month until I'm happy with it. the big flat rock is waiting until I'm motivated to glue all my zoa frags on to it then I'll find a place for it.

http://i6.photobucket.com/albums/y228/Khaosinc/new%20tank/006-7.jpg

obligitory FTS

everything is a little washed out. Another one of those weird days with sun.

http://i6.photobucket.com/albums/y228/Khaosinc/new%20tank/007-8.jpg

[hoffy02]

I like it..

Are you worried at all about detritus build up or anything like that?

[lisafoster]

I will look forward to seeing this progress.

[csmfish]

Yea, I think your gonna have a lot of shiznit built up unless you can make some pointy rocks or something to keep a lot of "free" flow under them going. I have a rock bed in my 20l and there is a big collection of stuff. Other than that, I like rock beds.

[jsantoli]

I would be concerned about detritus build up, other then that it looks good

[mutateddogbone]

once you get that rock bed loaded with animals like mushrooms, zoas, palys, etc, they will eat up all the detritus before it ever reaches the bottom.

neat idea. id like to see it in a few months when you start growing animals on it

[Barfly]

Unless you can figure out a way to get the detrius into the water column, which is going to very tough, this is going to be a very bad idea in the long term. Keeping your nitrates down will soon be next to impossible.

[wrott]

I've got a bare bottom tank and love it. I can siphon between the rocks and get all of the gunck out w/out worrying about any sand (I do have a 6" sandbed in the fuge).
I would think twice about adding xenia and anthellia (I have delt w/ both), they can invade every place of your tank, including the glass.
I would not intensionally introduce these kinds of soft corals into any of my tanks in the future. Rics and shrooms are another story--a better story.
It looks like a large tank, what are the dimensions?

[jdareef]

Neat idea

[Barfly]

I've got a bare bottom tank and love it. I can siphon between the rocks and get all of the gunck out w/out worrying about any sand (I do have a 6" sandbed in the fuge).
I would think twice about adding xenia and anthellia (I have delt w/ both), they can invade every place of your tank, including the glass.
I would not intensionally introduce these kinds of soft corals into any of my tanks in the future. Rics and shrooms are another story--a better story.
It looks like a large tank, what are the dimensions?

I also have a bare bottom tank, but I don't know that this is really considered a BB as he has said he wanted a rock bed. Again if that is the case, it will be next to impossible to keep the detrius of the bottom. In the long term, there will be many problems as a result of the built up detrius.

[khaosinc]

I have a bristle population that makes the bottom of rocks look like its moving so not much could build up there easily. Thats of course after the shrimp crabs and snails come through. I'm leaving 1/2 to 1" of sand in the tank for them to scoot around in. I figure between the 300 gallon sump for of live rock, and the 240 soon to be macro tank/mangrove swamp I don't think my nitrates will be much of a problem. I also do not have a particularily high fish load.

as far as xenia and anthillia, I have lots of space, and with a rock bottem its easy enough to just pull out a rock and replace it and trade/sell the full one. also another nitrate reducer. I don't plan to get much in to SPS as I'm really not motivated enough to keep my system perfect enough for them.

a couple well aimed Korilla magnum 8's should take care of buildup quite nicely

The tank is 4' by 10' 30" deep.

[ludnix]

I certainly don't see anything wrong with it technically, I think it could look really nice when it's had time to blend in and life to grow on it.

[67Duster]

Astrias will love it.

[khaosinc]

I certainly don't see anything wrong with it technically, I think it could look really nice when it's had time to blend in and life to grow on it.

This is why I am looking for some opinions.. I *think* I have most of the bases covered and with a little maintence until it grows in I don't *think* im going to have much trouble.

[muttley000]

I think it will look awesome when it gets filled in with life. In your sized system, I don't think you will have problems.

[njdevilsfan]

hey k i have a 20 gallon frag tank that i used live rubble for the entire bottom
its not the same size rocks you have but..
its the same idear
most of it has become a mushroom carpet
i will try to get some pics as soon as i can (kinda sick atm)

[khaosinc]

Love to see them. In my head I think it will look great.. hoping it gets there.

[el aguila]

There was a good thread on this a while back. I have one and run part of my closed loop underneath with holes drilled in the sides of the PVC to get some flow up through the rock. I also have a good bit of flow in general in my tank to help out.

[bmkj02]

I wouldnt do. I had crushed coral bed and that gave me problems so I switched to a deep 5"-6" sand bed

[D-Nak]

I remember years ago this was quite popular. My LFS used to sell rock rubble that was encrusted with coralline algae. Not so popular these days -- as many have mentioned the detritus build up is insane. I don't think a powerhead would be sufficient, and with life growing on top it would make the flow even worse. Unless you're planning to have some sort of current flowing up underneath it to keep the detritus in suspension, I suspect long term (definitely not immediate) problems will occur.

I realize that we run our systems in different ways, I just don't see the point of creating a zone that could potentially be detrimental to the system by acting as a detritus trap, then creating another zone to try to lower the nitrates created by said zone.

[khaosinc]

My main reason (I'm not trying to be arguementitive I know it comes off that way online somtimes) is not as much creating the zone as I am in getting the sand out of my tank so I can stop being paranoid about having my magnet 6" from the sand bed. There still will be a layer of sand but very shallow. The rocks are fist to softball sized so there should be enough room for most fish to get down between them, and the shrimps/crabs/narsissious snails should be able to get most of the rest. There is also a huge population of bristle worms and such. There will still be a DSB in the planted tank not to mention the over 800 gallons of water that is connected to this system that isn't going to be stocked with much. The 300 will house an eel, (living in my sump currently) and maybe a big 'nem and various fish rescued because they are a PITA in most systems but not heavily stocked. There is also close to 1500 pounds of LR in this system. The powerheads flow over 3000 GPH and I've seen them blow small rocks around, I imagine they can keep stuff flying around pretty well.

I am not adding the planted tank to the system as much for nitrate reduction as I am because I'm curious about marine plants. The 300 came along so its a fine place to put an eel, and I really want a big 'nem at some point and I don't have the guts to risk the fish/corals in my main tank.

[cfrobin]

Very different look. Good luck with it, I too would be concerned with the cleaning of it. Let us know how it works out.