Bare-bottom / fishless: Pitfalls?

The Velvet Sea

New member
I'm curious what some of you may think are potential pitfalls and/or areas of concern with a certain setup. I have a pretty good background and experience with reef tanks, but I'm thinking about trying things a bit differently with my new tank.

24 gallon all in one set up. Halide lighting. Nano remora skimmer (does a decent enough job for a HOB). Tons of flow via a modded double maxijet return and mp10 in the display.

I'm thinking about going bare-bottom and fishless, with as small of a snail based cuc as I can get away with. I'm going to focus on sps frags and one or two types of lps frags towards the bottom.

I use good reef salt and 0ppt home prepared RODI. I'll use 2part solution to supplement ca and alk if regular water changes aren't enough to keep the system stable.

I'm curious what you all think might be some of the challenges with this setup. Do you think corals could suffer when there isn't any significant organic waste type of nutrient source in the aquarium (considering I'm thinking about going fishless)? I've kept all types of corals successfully for many years, and at least as far as photosynthetic corals go, I've never depended on actively feeding the corals, but all of my tanks always had fish in the past.

I've been running the tank for a few months now and everything is nice and stable. I don't get any significant detritus buildup since my flow is so high so I don't think that is of much concern, though it is something I will pay attention to and address whenever I do water changes.

I'll stop there... your thoughts? Thanks.
 
You should be fine. A couple of years ago I setup a 32 gallon cube. Bare bottom, live rock, wet/dry, mag 9.5 and a 14k 250w MH. The SPS were growing out of the tank. I had no fish and never did a water change. No skimmer, no GFO and no carbon. The only supplement I added was Purple Up. Never had any issues and actually I took in several bleached colonies from friends that colored up in a months time. Good luck!
 
interesting subject, and its something im considering myself, i want a 100 gallon cube or about that size, no sand or substrate and just filled with sps and serious flow, like 100-120 turnover in the dt, ive been researching myself and see no problem with this type of system, however i will have a remote fudge filled with a deep sand bed and cheato so in theory there is a sand bed, the water through that will be only 3 times ish, so im hoping it works, i think it will
 
Galveston, eh? I'm just north in the clear lake area.

My last tank was a 150 gallon bare bottom, and while there were some fish, there werent a lot of fish. I considered it "nutrient poor" after it had been running for a while, and there are some things to consider when growing corals in these conditions. It's true that SPS prefer clean water, but I found there is such a thing as "too clean." Generally there isnt any issue with what you're proposing, but monitor coral colors and growth. If the color seems to be lightening (more pale), simply add some fish food to the tank, or get something specific to feed the corals. Or, if you're energy conscience, decrease your photoperiod (I ran my daylights only for about 4 hours) to regain coloration. These are all facets to tinker with once you get up and running, and while this is a bit unique to your application, it's nothing any successful reef-keeper is unfamiliar with. Good luck!
 
I wouldn`t worry about being nutrient poor without fish- its easier to add needed nutrients than remove unwanted ones. The only issue I have had with BB tanks, is the amount of reflected light being so much less than a white bed provides. In a couple deep tanks changing from bare glass to white sand has made dramatic improvements in coral growth and apperance.
 
Thanks for the input. I didn't think about it being easier to add nutrients than take them out, which is very true now that I think about it. I could easily toss a tiny pellet of food into the tank once every other week if I really notice issues with poor coral health due to extremely low nutrient levels. Of course I won't do that unless a problem arises though.

Also as far as the asthetics and reflectivity of the bottom, I took a large white plastic cutting board and shaped it with my dremmel to fit the bottom of the tank. It looks more natural than bare glass, though not perfect, and it also protects the bottom glass from falling rocks.

I'm hoping to add a couple snails this weekend and then order some frags in a few weeks!

Hey crvz, I used to work for an aquarium maintenance company in clear lake!
 
actually ive seen a couple of lovely bare bottom tanks, one was covered in corraline, but 90% of it was also covered in quality live rock, the other was covered in GSP, and it looked superb.
 
Asthetics wasn't really what I was thinking of as "pitfalls" but if that is what you all want to talk about, so be it!

I think my cutting board looks pretty nice. I've also thought about using a fast encrusting coral like the popular meteor shower cyphastrea to cover the bottom of the tank. I think that could be very cool.
 
The biggest challenge will be your family and friends asking, "why do you have a fish tank with no fish in it?" :)
 
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