Bare bottomed for 3 months, observations & questions

[LouH]

+1 im in the same boat,tank transfer in 2 weeks...maybe SSB is best

I wouldn't be so quick to make any tank decisions based on my experience. I just came from a shallow sand bed. If I had to compare the two just in terms of growth and color, so far the bare bottomed tank is yielding better results for me with the exception on LPS. If I threw sand in there, I certainly wouldn't see all of the fish poop and detritus, which would be asthetically pleasing, but I don't know if it would make anything better. My guess is that I would get lazy and not vacuum the substrate as frequently as is necessary, and my corals would suffer. If I were going to put sand in the display, I would go DSB. However, I'm seeing enough good going on in my tank to stay on the current path.

 

[brad65ford]

Any updates?

 

[LouH]

Sure, Montipora are taking over my tank. My hammerhead and torch coral are fairing decently. I had to get rid of 4 Xenia colonies that were bigger than softballs. I need to rid my tank of Xenia. They grow like weeds. I do have Blastomoussa polyps that barely hung on to life for a year but have suddenly inflated and looking pretty good. I have about 16 half dollar sized Ricordea that look absolutely stunning. Keeping Zooanthid colonies still proves to be difficult. They just don't do well in my tank. Over time polyps bail out and the colony slowly disappears. It could be flow related (too much)

Believe it or not, I recently switched out 12 month old Hamilton 14K lamps (250W) for 20K lamps, and this seems to have had a huge impact on coral growth and color. At first they were too blue, but after a week the color shifted and the color is great now. I tried Phoenix 20K lamps once, but ditched them after a couple of weeks because they were WAY too blue. The tank looked as though the water had been replaced with Scope mouthwash.

An interesting note on this lamp change is that a rose colored anemone has morphed from being squat with short bulbous arms to being very open and the arms are now thin and expand outward very far. The red color has deepened and it is a beautiful creature.

Lou

 

[500pilot]

sand bed

sand bed

so no sand bed is better will be putting up a 200DD

 

[Siasl]

To add to the conversation on BB health versus appearance - there are a couple of guys with posts on here in which they detail out using starboard bottom covered in a thin faux sand bed. You can easily find it if you search (starboard bottom, sand mixed with resin, pasted on board and bang - fake awesome looking sand bed).

Reason I bring it up is that I have been using it for two years and along with heavy flow, bio pellets, biweekly water changes, weekly bacteria dosing - I have been undetectable with nitrates and very low phosphates all along with a heavy fish / mixed reef load.

The next question is "pictures?" (I unfortunately just tore my tank down and am moving from IL to AZ) - but I think the question is looks BB, Faux, sand versus health of tank. I would argue that with the proper regimen - you can have any mix you want.

Since I want happy wrasses, i am going back to sand.

GL

 

[SantaMonica]

Being without sand for the last 6 years, it's great to finally have a SSB now. The wonders of sand sifting gobies

 

[neacewood]

Updates?