Going to remove sand bed in 200g

[deemos85]

Hi All,

I am going to remove my sand bed, I hate the detritus that's always there no matter how much i clean it. I don't mind it looking ugly for a while as i plan on making it look nice by adding more corals than i already have.

Does anyone advise against this ? Again i don't really care about the look as that can be fixed.

Pros and Cons ? If anyone can help.

Thanks to all in advance.

 

[toothybugs]

This is extensively argued back and forth. BB tanks are easier to keep clean and you can crank the flow like mad in them but they also tend to look less natural.

That said, I went bare after a year and a half of sand, and love it. The mirror effect disappears quickly with coralline and a little algal growth breaking it.

 

[CStrickland]

You may find that you need to feed more. Some people that switch to "barebottom" tanks and keep feeding once a day find their corals get hungry from the lack of detritus in the water.
Also, I'd do it slowly so that the filtering bacteria you take out with the sand can grow more on the rocks and glass. Like use a siphon to pull out a pound every week or so.

How deep is your sand? If it's more than 2-3" you'll need to be careful on pockets of hydrogen sulfide gas. They can build up in deeper sand and poison the water if a big area gets disturbed.

If you search the forum look for threads about people "going barebottom" or "bb"
I saw a tank with green star polyps on the bottom once that was beautiful. It looked like grass kinda.

 

[deemos85]

I am still trying to figure out how i will get the sand out without removing all the water :/

 

[deemos85]

You may find that you need to feed more. Some people that switch to "barebottom" tanks and keep feeding once a day find their corals get hungry from the lack of detritus in the water.
Also, I'd do it slowly so that the filtering bacteria you take out with the sand can grow more on the rocks and glass. Like use a siphon to pull out a pound every week or so.

How deep is your sand? If it's more than 2-3" you'll need to be careful on pockets of hydrogen sulfide gas. They can build up in deeper sand and poison the water if a big area gets disturbed.

If you search the forum look for threads about people "going barebottom" or "bb"
I saw a tank with green star polyps on the bottom once that was beautiful. It looked like grass kinda.

Thank you so much for the idea. I love GSP and that would be amazing to do, I am going to give it a shot. Ill do 2-3 Pounds every few days if i figure out how to do it ... I feed living things in my tank daily, i have no issues with that.

 

[CStrickland]

Like this https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=_zPb3RoDGB0
Tho as you can see his is spreading all over the rocks too. I wouldn't like to have to keep pruning it, but I'm lazy

 

[Vinny Kreyling]

Take a piece of 3/8 -1/2 solid tubing & siphon during a water change.
Do not do it all in 1 shot, it's easier in sections over time.

 

[chimmike]

I wouldn't do it all in one shot for fear of releasing so much crap into the water that you'll annihilate the parameters in short order.

Remember too you're removing a LOT of biological filtration so do it in small portions.

 

[Member No. 1]

Hi All,

I am going to remove my sand bed, I hate the detritus that's always there no matter how much i clean it. I don't mind it looking ugly for a while as i plan on making it look nice by adding more corals than i already have.

Does anyone advise against this ? Again i don't really care about the look as that can be fixed.

Pros and Cons ? If anyone can help.

Thanks to all in advance.

Deemos, here is a video of my tank, bare bottom, with HDPE on the bottom. As you can see, it's pretty covered with coralline algae. I also have a few corals encrusting.
http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showpost.php?p=24217308&postcount=41