Sand on bottom vs No sand on bottom

[dascharisma]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=12986527#post12986527 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Torpus
we ran BB, actually cutting board bottom, on our last tank and had one serious issue with it.
we didn't glue acrylic around the edges and detritus got underneath the board and was impossible to siphon out
if you decide to go with the cutting board bottom consider glueing it down, I have had both ways and prefer sand easier to clean and is better looking in my opinion

If you think a sand bed is easier to clean, then you didn't have enough well positioned flow in your tank. A proper BB setup is super easy to take care of.

As for the pitifully small amount of detritus that can get under the cutting board, I wouldn't worry about it. There is exponentially more detritus in most sand beds.


Brad

 

[Torpus]

thats fine. we had more than enough flow moving detritus off the bottom but it found ways to get under the cutting board and you cant keep as many cleaners as you can with a sand bed

you can see the BB tank in our gallery if you care

just sharing our experiences, I would seal the edges of the board if I did a BB again, which I doubt I will because I didn't like the unnatural look

 

[staci]

we have a bb tank and love it. we are now figting an algae, so going to add a rdsb to the refugium. I was told that and a phospahate reactor would help tremendously. My thing is it seems we do have some build up on the floor of the tank. we have 4 phs in there and i just dont think they are positioned right. can someone with a bb please chime in and let me know where you have yours and where they are pointed. we have a 120g if that matters.. thanks, and I hope its ok that I asked this on your thread.

 

[dascharisma]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=13073923#post13073923 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by staci
we have a bb tank and love it. we are now figting an algae, so going to add a rdsb to the refugium. I was told that and a phospahate reactor would help tremendously. My thing is it seems we do have some build up on the floor of the tank. we have 4 phs in there and i just dont think they are positioned right. can someone with a bb please chime in and let me know where you have yours and where they are pointed. we have a 120g if that matters.. thanks, and I hope its ok that I asked this on your thread.

I set up a 120 recently. It had 2 Tunze 6100s and 2 Korallia 4s. The Tunzes are positioned on the bottom left and bottom right on the back of the tank (each about 8-12 inches from the side). They blow along the bottom of the tank toward the front. The korallias are placed toward the top of the tank on the back pointing toward the front corners of the tank. It works fairly well. If I were to change anything, I would swap the Korallias for a pair of Tunze 6200s.


The main trick is how you set up the live rock. If you have a lot of rock, or a lot of rock touching the bottom, you are going to get way more settling than you want. If you have more than 150lbs of rock (I would shoot for around 100lbs) then I would remove the rock and reaquascape with a more open design in mind.


If it were me, I would skip the RDSB and the Fuge. Both are a waste of time if you have the system set up properly. Just use a very good skimmer and a phosphate reactor. That's all it takes. That, and time.



Brad

 

[staci]

well we have aprox 250lbs of lr in our 120 lol I will have tim move the phs around and see what happens. does your tank have over flows on the back as mine has 2 so that makes it interesting with the phs on the back, the are between the over flows. and currently he has the other 2 on the side in the middle pointing at each other. I think we will still do the rdsb because it def wont hurt anything... but thanks so much for the information.
Staci