Barebottom Advice

[Sith2095]

Just bought a 40B and want to set it up as a barebottom tank. I ahve questions though.

I have seen in the forums where alot of people are using the starboard to protect from rocks falling, is there another way that I can achieve this with something different? Just dont like the look of it that much to be honest.

Also I am not planning on stacking rock high if at all. Looking at doing more of a zoa garden type set up with flatter rocks that are not stacked. I will probabaly add more coral in the future though once things are progressing.

Really just looking for advice on the bare bottom and if anyone has experience and knows of something I may be overlooking.

Current plan is to try and stay low budget for now since this will be the 2nd tank I have and the wife isnt thrilled about spending alot of money on another one.

I am going to build the stand, already have a T5 fixture for it, getting a heater, filter, and probably 2 koraila PW for now. I may add another in the future depending on how the flow owrks out and what coral I end up adding later on. I hav a HOB skimmer on my 60gal that I will probably trade out every so often. Again trying to stay basic and low budget and add in the future.

Thoughts?

Thanks.

 

[cloak]

When your building your rock structure, you could just use a little epoxy in the joints to keep the rocks stable. The epoxy usually takes about 5 minutes before it cures, so you 'll have a little time to fiddle with the design. Also, it's fairly cheap. I think it's about $6 at Home Depot for a small tube of JB Waterweld. HTH.

 

[miatawnt2b]

I went to orange big box store and bought a neat looking piece of travertine for my BB. As I was setting up the tank, I realized it would look even more natural if the travertine was placed upside down as the bottom of the tile is not posished/filled. I was able to use a single 18" tile cut down to size as my tank is a 17" cube. I wouldn't think it would be a big issue to use multiple pieces for a larger tank. You could always fill the seams with epoxy as the whole thing will be covered in corriline eventually.
-J

 

[sponger0]

Zipties are ultra cheap