Bare bottom options - Help

[jeremyjoslin]

After a catastrophic draining of my 300g tank last night, I'm ditching the closed loop system.

I'm ordering 6 glass plates to patch over the holes on the bottom of my tank.

Conicidentally, I've been wanting to go BB for some time. With the glass plate patches scattered around on the floor, I'll need to do some disguising. Here's my options:

- black pain the bottom (inside). The plates will still be visible, but "blend" better.
- mix up a bucket of epoxy and sand and cover the bottom with a very thin layer.
- try to find a black HDPE board that fits inside and lay it on the bottom.

Anyone have thoughts on pros/cons in a large tank?

 

[ca1ore]

After a catastrophic draining of my 300g tank last night, I'm ditching the closed loop system.

Oh boy, I can imagine - just don't want to! Did a pipe/fixture rupture?

 

[jeremyjoslin]

ball valve union failed while i was doing maintenance on my hammerhead. entire tank drained in about 3 minutes.

 

[ca1ore]

What a disaster! I had a bottom plumbed closed loop on my prior tank, and had all sorts of leaking problems with it. Swore I would never again plumb anything through the bottom!

Sorry to say I don't have anything useful to offer in terms of how to do a BB. Don't like them much myself so always go with a couple of inches of reef floor sand.

 

[ormet]

I think sand and epoxy can look nice, my problem with it over just have smooth glass, hdpe or acrylic bottom is that detritus will get trapped on the rough surface. That might not be a problem for you but one of the biggest pro's for smooth BB, imho, is that all detritus collects in easy to siphon spots.

Or just aquascape over the patches and have patience, coraline will cover the bottom eventually. It takes some maintenance to have a pristine glass/acrylic/hdpe bottom.

Best of luck, so sorry for your disaster!

 

[Pife]

Some of the guys in our fish club have used the black hdpe/starboard and it looks great.

 

[Mark...]

ball valve union failed while i was doing maintenance on my hammerhead. entire tank drained in about 3 minutes.

So sorry for the disaster, was the valve scd 40 or 80? Any chance it was Spears?

 

[jeremyjoslin]

So sorry for the disaster, was the valve scd 40 or 80? Any chance it was Spears?

Sch 40.

No. Lowe's generic. But I'm not sure a spears fitting wouldn't have the same engineering and therefore also susceptible. If I build any future systems, I would only use true union valves.

 

[ca1ore]

FWIW, plumb closed loop through the top back. Cannot drain the tank that way and works just as well for circulation.

 

[jeremyjoslin]

FWIW, plumb closed loop through the top back. Cannot drain the tank that way and works just as well for circulation.

Couldn't agree more. The tank was purchased used this way, and I was opposed to it from day one (looking back at my build thread I remember how torn I was). The problem was the tank was a good deal, by ideal dimensions, starphire, and the guy was going to deliver it. For those who've shopped for a used tank in the "big boy" department, finding one for sale within 6 hours drive can be tough. I jumped on this one when it popped up. Other than the drilled bottom, I've liked it.

 

[ca1ore]

Yeah the 300 is a terrific tank. I didn't have room for the extra width so went with the ML265, but would have gone with the 300DD otherwise.