can I see some pics of bare bottom tanks?

[PITSTOP]

JUST WENT BARE-BOTTOM!!! YES!

I read one of Bomber’s posts; he told the tail of hair algae creeping up the rock work after years of buying endless cleaner crews, yadda, yadda, yadda…

I have a 120 display, 40 breeder sump, AquaC EV180 w/Mag 9.5, MH’s, VHO’s, etc.

I moved everything (corals, rocks, fish) into a temporary 55 AGA, drained and discarded ALL used seawater, removed a 4� Southdown bed of liquid STANK MUD, scraped everything down with vinegar to ‘like new’ condition, hand picked as much algae as possible off the rocks, refilled the tank and sump with fresh RO/DI, new Tropic Marin salt, let season for 48 hours, moved everything back in…..and WOW! What a difference 4 full days of labor makes!

I will post before and after pictures tomorrow. My how we love before and after pix!!!

[FastUno]

Funny, back in 1996 I was simply trying to keep salt water fish alive in my tank with an underground filter. I had come across an individual who told me his tank had just the bare glass & his fish & that he never had any problems. I went home & thought about it long & hard. I noticed that one of my LFS tanks were all bare tanks & their fish were always healthy & water always super clean.

I concluded that BB was the way to go & that I would investigate some means of creating a false BB, something that looks more natural. The best idea that I could come across is spreading silicone on the surface of the tank bottom & spreading/compressing sand over it. This was many years ago.

[boxfishpooalot]

Originally posted by FastUno
Funny, back in 1996 I was simply trying to keep salt water fish alive in my tank with an underground filter. I had come across an individual who told me his tank had just the bare glass & his fish & that he never had any problems. I went home & thought about it long & hard. I noticed that one of my LFS tanks were all bare tanks & their fish were always healthy & water always super clean.

I concluded that BB was the way to go & that I would investigate some means of creating a false BB, something that looks more natural. The best idea that I could come across is spreading silicone on the surface of the tank bottom & spreading/compressing sand over it. This was many years ago.

I think its because those bacteria living in the ugf just got a perfect breeding ground to create ammonia(rotting of waste)

Really I think that in our tanks, some bacteria are useless.

[boxfishpooalot]

Still wanna see them tanks!Cmon guys

[FastUno]

90g

[poknsnok]

Originally posted by PITSTOP
JUST WENT BARE-BOTTOM!!! YES!

I read one of Bomber’s posts; he told the tail of hair algae creeping up the rock work after years of buying endless cleaner crews, yadda, yadda, yadda…

I have a 120 display, 40 breeder sump, AquaC EV180 w/Mag 9.5, MH’s, VHO’s, etc.

I moved everything (corals, rocks, fish) into a temporary 55 AGA, drained and discarded ALL used seawater, removed a 4� Southdown bed of liquid STANK MUD, scraped everything down with vinegar to ‘like new’ condition, hand picked as much algae as possible off the rocks, refilled the tank and sump with fresh RO/DI, new Tropic Marin salt, let season for 48 hours, moved everything back in…..and WOW! What a difference 4 full days of labor makes!

I will post before and after pictures tomorrow. My how we love before and after pix!!!

Did you get some pics yet??

[PITSTOP]

Sorry for the delay mates, here are some snaps as promised.

>>> BEFORE REMOVING THE SAND BED:



>>> ONLY 4 DAYS AFTER REMOVING THE SAND BED!









>>> What you cannot really see in these photos is the immediate and dramatic change in the stony corals. Before removal of the sand bed, the growth was painfully slow, many were getting 'infected' with a mysterious dark brown filamentous algae on the tips, most were slowly/rapidly losing color and flourescence. In only 4 days the changes have been clearly noticable. All the corals developed intense growing tips, colors started to appear that I had NEVER seen in them. I can't wait to do a 1 month update, or 1 year!!!

[poknsnok]

wow... did you "cook" your rocks??

[SERVO]

I finally made it into the club. After starting this set up in December, I finally got rock in it today!!! Now for a little cycle time before I transfer my SPS!

[SERVO]

Originally posted by boxfishpooalot
Nice tanks!

Dubbin1 what kind of fish do you got in there glass fish?

I think he has some ghost shrimp in there too! LOL

[PITSTOP]

poknsnok - no, I spent a great deal of time pulling off the algae by hand. I removed all the rock before removing the sand, placed the rock into a plastic bin and manicured it (for a long time).

[heedicus]

So here is something that I hope is not to dumb of a question...
When the rock is "cooking" is it still acting as a biological filter?
so if i were to cook my rock in a sump room and leave the display bare but for a few fish and corals with some pvc pipes for hiding, would it work or would the rock not be able to keep up with the waste?

second dumb question.
do you have to "cook" dry baserock? is there any gunk that comes aboard even dry rock that needs to get cooked out?

Thanks,
Tren

[bkwudzjeep]

WOW....great thread....

Can you get away with less lighting with BB? Most of the BB tanks seem much brighter.....i.e. reflected light?

Just something that popped in my head.

[just dave]

Started October of 2004.

[diverrad]

Dave how do you siphon out the detritus with tank so packed ?

[just dave]

I flip it upside down and pour it out.




























Actually my flow patterns push most of it to the rear(got lucky) and I siphon it out from the back.
The structure is like a horse shoe and is open/bare behind the rock work. Also the main structure is built over a acrylic shell and is open underneath as well.

[diverrad]

ahh nice. I'm still plaing with the frow to get it right

[eidillitih]

what size tank it that?

[just dave]

48"x48"x24"

[GSchiemer]

Originally posted by heedicus


second dumb question.
do you have to "cook" dry baserock? is there any gunk that comes aboard even dry rock that needs to get cooked out?

Thanks,
Tren

By "cooking" your good live rock you are essentially turning it into base rock, so if that's your goal, you may as well buy base rock. Better yet, buy dry calcareous rock and save a lot of money and time waiting for all the biological activity to cease and die. Better still, just make some shelves out of plastic eggcrate and sit your corals on top of those. It will look just like the neighborhood pet store!

For everyone into this new sterile craze, why not buy dried Acropora corals and paint them fluorescent colors. Put them into an aquarium without water. Perhaps hang a few plastic fish by nylon strings.

Personally, I prefer a more natural look and diversity in my reef aquariums. I like the entire ecosystem that depends upon a sand substrate, and I couldn't give up my leopard wrasses, Halichoeres wrasses, gobies and blennies that live and sleep in the sand, but that's just me.

[Weatherman]

Originally posted by GSchiemer
By "cooking" your good live rock you are essentially turning it into base rock, so if that's your goal, you may as well buy base rock. Better yet, buy dry calcareous rock and save a lot of money and time waiting for all the biological activity to cease and die. Better still, just make some shelves out of plastic eggcrate and sit your corals on top of those. It will look just like the neighborhood pet store!

Not quite...

You need to read this.

http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/sh...hreadid=485572

[Bomber]

Greg, haven't you been in this too long to be making posts like that?

You're just bashing something you don't understand, that's obvious because you could not have read Sean's rock cooking thread and said that.

All it is is using bacteria to drive the organics/nutrients out of the rocks so you start out with a cleaner system. It's not making them sterile, it's just making them a whole less likely to pollute your tank.

[Electrobes]

Just Dave - That is an astonishingly beautiful tank! I like the way the barebottom isn't really viewlable... a bunch of corals and rock is there instead. If did mind changing out the sand bed and didn't care for sand dwelling clams all that much... I would go BB via your landscaping!

[just dave]

Originally posted by Electrobes
Just Dave - That is an astonishingly beautiful tank! I like the way the barebottom isn't really viewlable... a bunch of corals and rock is there instead. If did mind changing out the sand bed and didn't care for sand dwelling clams all that much... I would go BB via your landscaping!

Thanks.

Very real looking isn't it?

I did a good job hiding the nylon strings I used to suspend the fish.




I have this tank attached to the system.

Notice the 12" ruler in the picture. This is a older picture as I have live rock in the tank now.

[GSchiemer]

Originally posted by Bomber
Greg, haven't you been in this too long to be making posts like that?

You're just bashing something you don't understand, that's obvious because you could not have read Sean's rock cooking thread and said that.

All it is is using bacteria to drive the organics/nutrients out of the rocks so you start out with a cleaner system. It's not making them sterile, it's just making them a whole less likely to pollute your tank.

But in the process of "cooking" the rock are you not killing off macroalgae, coralline algae, microcrustaceans, remnants of living coral, etc.? And those are the reason we buy live rock, isn't it?

I understand the "cooking" process and I believe it has a place. I just don't think it should be standard operating procedure when buying live rock.

BTW, I'm not saying that one needs sand in order to have a successful reef aquarium. I've kept BB reef aquariums long before they were in vogue and for the same reasons they're recommended now. IMO, it's a better methodology for a high-energy reef aquarium and perhaps a better methodology for beginners in general. Furthermore, I was NEVER a follower of the DSB methodology, especially with the powder-fine sand. It's ugly, unnecessary, a waste of good aquarium space, and eventually will be more trouble than it's worth, which isn't much. I just don't appreciate the attitude and insinuations that some "minions" display in these threads (not you Bomber) proclaiming BB is the b-all and end-all and the rest of us are idiots.

Greg