<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=15146206#post15146206 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by ichthyman
You can’t sum up the world’s marine ecosystem or what is happening in our tanks in tidy series of independent formulas. The complexity of these environments is staggering and no one science has a hope to explain it all. Please don’t mock, the mantra comment, those who chose to lessen the variables and exercise a greater degree of control over their aquariums. Many of these folks have had sandbeds previously and followed the current recommendations of the experts but yet still failed. Why? Not the correct substrate. Not enough or in the wrong ratio of critters in the substrate. Sandbed wasn’t deep enough. Heavy metals in the salt mix. No protein skimmer. Too much protein skimming. Or my personal favorite, “you’re too dumb run a DSB†even though the expert who said it couldn’t maintain a tank for more than a couple years before it would mysteriously crash. I’m done with this conversation now. I suggest that anyone who would like a better understanding of the bare bottom approach, to do a search for posts made by Bomber. He was the first advocate here on RC and very possible the originator of the concept. Unfortunately, he and some other good people where victims of the great “SandWars†of 04’-05’.
I took a bit of time to think over this response because I feel like this discussion isn't ending well. A discussion is beneficial only if we keep an open mind and don't allow emotions or personal slants to cloud our comments. I obviously didn't recognize this when I posted my original statement about Mantras and I apologize for this. I appreciate the time you've taken to engage the remarks that I've made, I've learned quite a bit from it.
I have a lot of respect for John and his contributions to both the reefing community and the progression of the hobby through innovation, questioning the norm, etc. I also have a lot of respect for different methods of keeping a reef, bare-bottom being absolutely not the exception. I feel like the fundamental tenets of bare-bottom tanks are sound. As we've seen many times, they can be applied to successfully keep a thriving reef tank. I've actually just recently started siphoning my 3" sand bed from my display tank because of nitrate issues.
Please keep in mind that I wasn't around for the "SandWars" of 04-05. Back then I didn't even know keeping corals in a box was possible. Every discussion I've tried to open about Bare Bottom vs. DSB has been met with hesitation or ridicule. This has been the most informative one I've had to date.
What I do know is that many "experts" whom I highly respect advocate DSB. RHF, WaterKeeper, Melev are just a few of these folks. The term "so-called experts" is IMO also disrespectful. Some of the above mentioned people are highly respected individuals who have
published in their fields. By this I mean scientific publications, not articles in ReefKeeping Magazine or Insert-Online-Reef-Publication-Here.
EDIT: For those of you who read this before I looked up the history of Shimek, Borneman and Boomer, please forgive my ignorance. I've removed those names just for the sake of preventing another flame war.
I totally agree that we cannot even begin to describe the complex interactions that take place in our tanks. I also think that your approach of removing as many variables from the equation is sound. That said, I've seen many bare-bottom tanks with issues. Are they easier to keep than DSBs? Maybe, maybe not. The problems you listed above with DSBs also have similar parallels in BB tanks. Not enough flow. Didn't change the sock enough. Lack of a $1million skimmer. Didn't blow off the rocks weekly. Need to dose X product. I'm not saying that these issues invalidate BB as a legit approach. Any method needs to be tweaked and applied properly.
This hobby is still much more an art than a science. No one method has emerged as the single, best approach. What's important is that we continue to evolve our approaches, broaden our understanding and question the norm.
Please, please, please don't take this post as argumentative or flippant. I would hate to think that I've just made an enemy of someone I respect. You're one of the
very few LFS's that I would actually take advise from.