The "How to go Barebottom thread."

hi seant thanks for all of your work you have put forth in explaining how to work with bb aquariums.
I'm looking to start a new 120 gallon reef aquarium and was wondering how i would start.

What i mean is i will be purchasing live rock online and would be curing it in the aquarium... but are the refugiums bare?

Would you consider using a 6inch deep sand bed refugium for where the critters will stay ? and a bare bottom display?

What is your take on that? i mean with the live rock i hate to have all of the pods etc die...

In your bare bottom aquariums do you just have a fuge with some chaeto in it? and a return closed loop?

thanks guys for all of your work in addition to the threads.

Aaron.
 
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=6731357#post6731357 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by aaron23
hi seant thanks for all of your work you have put forth in explaining how to work with bb aquariums.
I'm looking to start a new 120 gallon reef aquarium and was wondering how i would start.

What i mean is i will be purchasing live rock online and would be curing it in the aquarium... but are the refugiums bare?

Would you consider using a 6inch deep sand bed refugium for where the critters will stay ? and a bare bottom display?

What is your take on that? i mean with the live rock i hate to have all of the pods etc die...

In your bare bottom aquariums do you just have a fuge with some chaeto in it? and a return closed loop?

thanks guys for all of your work in addition to the threads.

Aaron.
Click to expand...

#1 - no fuges in bb

#2 - no sand at all

#3 - pods wont die during the cooking process and will live in a bb environment

#4 - again, no fuge, a return pump along with a closed loop or two

Hope that answers your questions :)
 
I have clams in my BB system and they do fine. As for mandarins I have never tried it. The pod population will be lower than in a typical system with a sandbed mainly because there isn't as much detritus but there are still pods. Maybe a larger overall system needed to provide the volume of pods you will need to support the fish?
Chris
 
I took my sand out this weekend and there are a couple of observations I've made.

My PH is so much more stable now. I did add a lot more flow which I'm sure helps but I'm really surprised how much less it swings. I think I've read others experience that same thing.

My lights now seem less bright. I know that doesn't make sense but maybe it's the lack of reflection on the sand. I also scraped my back glass clean and that might be part of it. I'm mostly conviced it just a visual thing but just kind of strange.

One last thing. For those looking for starboard try Interstate Plastics it's much cheaper there but you might have to cut it yourself to get the best price. I personally just went bare glass though since I don't have a piled rock structure.
 
Re: BB systems

Re: BB systems

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=6737215#post6737215 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by saraiva
It is possible to have tridacna and mandarin fish in BB tank?
Click to expand...
T. crocea in my BB for 20 months now :)
 
I don't know what to think anymore.. my rock is still outside cooking, and I just cleaned my tank yesterday, and today its al ready full of a 'mist' of green algae all over the glass again, there is ****ing HAIR ALGAE all over my overflow box, and the pvc

and I am getting worried, I have two clownfish in a 25g, i clean the filters once to 2x a week, and chance the water once a week to once every 2 weks, its about 3 gallons

I have seen people who have had their sps lighten up in color and im afraid that is happening to my A. nana., and my green slimer, Too low of nutrients for the SPS corals, yet I feed alot everyday, yet if the nutrients are so low, why the **** am i getting so much algae and HAIR ALGAE growth

I feel like I did everything wrong from the basic start up, spent more and more and more money to try and make things better, go BB becuase that seemed like the solution, now it seems like my solution is to just quit, I seriously do not know what to do anymore, my rock has been finished cooking for the past 2 weeks, but I havnt added it back yet, because im afraid the hair algae in the tank will spread and find itself on a nice crevice in the rock.

I dont know what to do anymore, if anyone has any help i would greatly appreciate it... I see all of these people who set everything up right the first timeand now with this is just soo frustrating, the only reason i dont want to quit is because i have put so much time and effort and love and care into my SPS, yet everything else sucks, ****in sucks
 
Smokez01,

First, all the expletives are unnecessary.

You say you clean your filters every week. What kind of filters are you using? What kind of protein skimmer are you using? The nutrients are not low in a BB system unless you are exporting them. You said you feed a lot but didnââ"šÂ¬Ã¢"žÂ¢t say what you do to export the nutrients.

Brent
 
Smokez - perhaps start a thread here or in reef discussion on your tank. IMO, we probably want to do a full run-through on the system/etc to give much detailed advice.


And I'd strongly encourage you to avoid profanity.
That's not welcome here.
 
I apologize... the next time that I have a concern about my aquarium I will try to ask questions in a more organized and proper way.

From reading and reading so much about what has happened to other peoples systems, and trying to do the best for mine, I'll do one thing, and the next thing I know I'm doing it all wrong again, and my brain is all discombobulated from school work, and all my mixed opinions on my aquarium, I do not just want to stop, because I have such a passion for it, but yet again, I'll totally flip if one litle thing goes wrong.

I will try to gather more information later after class, I apologize once again.
 
Hey, no problem ... given all our tanks, livestock, and habits are a little different - there might be something hanging you up that if we look at your system - maybe someone can help.

Or maybe we'll just confuse you ... sometimes that's how it goes, despite how we try.

It can be frustrating, to try as hard as you can, yet still run into problems.
 
Well things seem to be up and running pretty well, I think the over all lesson I am learning about aquariums is that to basically not worry that much about the tank, and just plain old leave it alone - except doing water changes and cleaning of the filters, but just by leaving it be, everything is doing very very well,

I am assuming I had some type of algae bloom, and it took a few weeks to work its self out. I recently added cooked live rock, and re scaped the tank, it looks very well, all my SPS are very happy with polyps wide open

One question now, Since the LR was cooked, the rock is basically all bone white, and I want to know what the best thing is to get coraline algae growing, there is still a little purple left over on the rock, but in the tank there isn't any coraline growing at all. I dose 2 scoops of Tropic Marin calcium once a week, in a 25 gallon tank, the SPS seem to LOVE it.

How do i go about getting more and more coralin algae? One personal experience i have is that it seems coraline grew faster for me under PC's than Halides, and on my 25g i have a 250w DE halide,

I have heard read around here that someone dosed Strontium, and they were getting tons of coraline bloches everywhere,

If anyone else has any suggestions on the coralline that would be fantastic. If anything, I will try to use that purple UP stuff, from aragalive. At my work, the show tanks in the front of the store, the co workers who take care of the tanks dose purple UP, and they swear its what's causing all of the coraline algae, but for some reason i'm not 100% set on trying it yet.

THanks again guys for the help,
 
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=7272618#post7272618 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by smokez01
How do i go about getting more and more coralin algae? One personal experience i have is that it seems coraline grew faster for me under PC's than Halides, and on my 25g i have a 250w DE halide,

I have heard read around here that someone dosed Strontium, and they were getting tons of coraline bloches everywhere,

If anyone else has any suggestions on the coralline that would be fantastic.
Click to expand...

You've got it... Power Compact, VHO or T5 light along with a little extra Strontium. I would get a Strontium test kit first (Salifert) to see where you're at, so you don't overdose.
 
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