Thinking of Going BB, Whats Your Experience?

[ReeferKimberly]

I have never seen a natural looking BB tank. That's just me. I would never do it, I would find another way to deal with my water quality issues.

This. I find them so ugly. Unless you can cover the bottom with like rics, or gsp or something. The most beautiful tanks look so ugly BB. JMHO

 

[sahin]

I have never seen a natural looking BB tank. That's just me. I would never do it, I would find another way to deal with my water quality issues.

I would very much agree with you there, and as I said in my last post, it does look butt ugly...however, once the coralline algae grows and if the scaping is pulled off nicely, BB tanks dont look so bad. But in the first year or two it can look ugly/unnatural.

Here is a BB tank that looks nice though:

Thread is here:
http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=2388459

 

[bill4t]

Bb is the way to go at least for me. Always had problems when I had sand in any of my tanks and honestly tanks don't look bad without sand plus much easier to maintain not having to worry about sand

 

[trueblackpercula]

And since you live in the USA, you should go visit WWC and see their tanks. Truly amazing tanks-a few UK reefkeepers have seen the WWC store, and were amazed by the tanks in that store.

The 300G has now been replaced by a 630G tank. They setup the new 630G tank as a bare-bottomed tank again. These guys sure like their starboard bottomed tanks...and the results are spectacular!

were do i find them? and sorry for the confusion. Its still amazing though

 

[sahin]

were do i find them? and sorry for the confusion. Its still amazing though

World Wide Corals are located in Orlando Florida. Seaworld is right nearby too.

 

[AcroporAddict]

Here is a pic of my 465 gallon BB tank. Just posted some other pics in this thread as well: http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?p=22552585#post22552585

 

[trueblackpercula]

Here is a pic of my 465 gallon BB tank. Just posted some other pics in this thread as well: http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?p=22552585#post22552585

Outstanding work my friend

 

[ormet]

Always the sand lovers come in with their talk of how ugly BB is. Isnt choice of aestethics up to each person to decide? It isnt really the question either. I cant for my life understand why it should at all be voiced.

I love BB. It limits my choice of fish tho, which is a downside. But BB lets me run my tank with low and easy maintanance.

Strong flow
Lots of light
Big skimmer

Also:
Bags of siporax in sump for bacteria to live in
5% wc every week

Done.

No gfo, no biopellets, no vodka, no socks. No additives. Just feed the fish and corals until you get the color of corals you like.

It took me a few tries. I failed in all three (flow, light, skimmer) before getting it right.

Go for it!

 

[ChadRaay86]

Haha, I'm not necessarily as concerned with aesthetics as most people. I just want to run a system that will stay happy and have minimal maintenance. I've achieved this for the most part, minus my phosphates. Because of what was previously discussed, I'm going to make a few little tweaks to my maintenance (filter socks) and setup (more flow) and see what the results are. If that, coupled with a 60 percent switch of old rock with newly acid washed rock doesn't take care of it, I will most likely be going BB and kicking my flow up another notch.

It was never about looks for me. I could care less, as long as both my fish and corals are happy, I am

That being said, today is the big day when I pull out all of this old rock and start the process. Wish me luck!

 

[sahin]

Good luck!

 

[ChadRaay86]

Thanks!

 

[Tweaked]

I never understood the doesn't look natural comments either. Just because there is sand, all of the sudden hanging lights, wires, painted back grounds, and the floating glass box of water in our living areas looks natural. :hmm3:

 

[ChadRaay86]

Whew!!! I don't know what's worse in this hobby for me, aquascaping or phosphate battles. Any who, I definitely think this rock switch and redo will work wonders. I put in a new set of filter socks right before and they've already clogged with all the crap coming out if the sand and rocks.

I think I did the best I could with the rock work, but it is definitely an improvement. I'll post some pics when it clears up

 

[GroktheCube]

I've been transitioning my tank from a sandbed to a DSB. After about a year, and despite cleaning, that sand was GROSS. The water coming up with the sand looked and smelled a bit like raw sewage.

The biggest perk of going BB for me is the ability to run more flow without creating a sand storm in the process.

 

[ChadRaay86]

I've been transitioning my tank from a sandbed to a DSB. After about a year, and despite cleaning, that sand was GROSS. The water coming up with the sand looked and smelled a bit like raw sewage.

The biggest perk of going BB for me is the ability to run more flow without creating a sand storm in the process.

If I go BB the lack of sand storms will be a joy! I agree with the gross haha. Sand was one color but the crap in it was a much different looking an smelling one

 

[AcroporAddict]

Before I upgraded to the 465 gallon BB tank I posted the pics of, I converted a 300 gallon SPS tank that had a substrate to BB, and my average ORP readings went up by 100, from an average of 250 to 350, with all other parameters being the same, other than the substrate removal.

What that says to me is that I had a lot of organics in the substrate of the 300.

 

[ChadRaay86]

After redoing things today, I agree with the organics being high in sand.

 

[sahin]

I never understood the doesn't look natural comments either. Just because there is sand, all of the sudden hanging lights, wires, painted back grounds, and the floating glass box of water in our living areas looks natural. :hmm3:

:lol: So true!

 

[Denadai]

There is a lot of places in nature that is no sand , like the top reef

This is a pic that I took years ago when I was diving in red sea

You guys can see here more pics :

http://denadai-reef.com/red-sea-2007-2/

So I think all this talk about with sand / no sand is just a personal choice.....with or without sand the aquarium can be natural

Best Regards

 

[ChadRaay86]

After the rearrange my phosphates are .46 Then again, the phosphates in my live rock holding tank were over .65! I'm going to dose some lanthanum chloride to bring it down in the near term, but I think its mainly just due to me stirring everything up...

I was really hoping for better results, but maybe I'll get those with tomorrow's test results. If not, I'll battle for a few more weeks, reevaluate and pull out the sand. After seeing all of the organics in the sand yesterday, I'm convinced that could be it...