Another considering going bare

[Alittlefishy]

As the title states, I'm considering going BB. I have a 55 mixed reef with a 1-3" sandbed and one year old LR. I am moving and will be moving to a 75 gallon tank. I'm wondering if I can just not put sand in the new tank. If I can leave the sand out, how much flow do you think I should have? I was thinking about 3 koralia 3s or 4s. Also, any skimmer recs?

[OneDummHikk]

Personally, I think BB tanks are some of the ugliest non-natural looking tanks I have ever seen. They just don't look right. But, you can add a fake sand bed to get the looks and have some of the benefits of a BB. Do you have any sand sifters or anything else that needs the sand? If not, then you can simply leave it out. If you don't like the looks, you can always add it back later. Same with the flow. Try 2 K4'es and see how well it works, then go from there.

Skimmer Recs? Let me dream on that one and get back to you

[Alittlefishy]

Aww come on now hick...I know you have some skimmer suggestions!!lol:rot flmao:

[OneDummHikk]

Yeah but a lot of them can't be printed in a family forum.

A 5 gallon IO salt bucket with a sealing lid is a good start to an incredible skimmer though. Interested?

[Loverotties]

I also hate BB,Iagree with Randy and also afrade of a Rock falling down and smashing the bottom.

[VWD]

Go BB, I think sand beds are dirty and ugly, LOL

[crvz]

I would agree with Vinnie, I've been without sand for years and have had excellent results and don't find anything negative about the aesthetics. You can simply leave the sand out, and flow will be somewhat dependent on the rockscaping, coral placement, etc. I think 3 or 4 pumps would be fine, but it depends on where you can place them.

Regarding skimmers, how much space do you have in your sump?

[YLChik]

I went BB with this past build and it took ahilw to get over the non sand "look".

I figure it this way if you are doing a reef top tank with SPS, sometimes you can hardly see the sand. If your diving a 100 ft reef and your look at sps at 30-40 feet well, sand really isn't an issue is it?!

I have had luck both ways.

ONe of my favorite bits about BB is when a frag falls off the rock work did doesn't die in my sand bed immendiatly, It just falls and all I have to do it pick it up and replace it - I lost a lot of frags to my old sand bed.

[Alittlefishy]

Hick, I've got several 5 gallon buckets, what ya got in mind?

Rotties, I am a little worried about rock work falling, but I've never had any fall in my current tank. Also, I will be making some "Rock Islands" instead of the rock wall look, but I will use LR to hold up a flat piece of agrocrete, then small stacks on top of that...should be pretty stable...if not, I'll epoxy it all together.

Everyone else, I am getting really sick and tired of my sand bed, it never looks white and pristine like I want it to, and I don't really have any animals that depend on it, so I'm going to try leaving it out. I'm going to experiment with flow and see what works...

CRVZ, I don't know about space in sump yet as I have not built the stand yet. However, the initial sump will be my 55, then switch to a 33L for better clearance over the rim. I plan on the stand being about 40-42" tall minus the 2x6's that gives about 29-31" of vertcal space for the sump. The actual inside LxW will be 48x22. I've got lots of room

[scoop]

Adam, I have 3 K3's in my BB 75 and get pretty good flow. It's rr, so that kind of inhibits how many ph's I can put in. You can go w/ 4 if don't have a rr tank. I really like the K3's better than the K4's, they are a little smaller and the flow is very close to the same, (I had a 4 and the 3's felt more powerful). Here is a fts where you can sort of see the 2 on the right side and one down low on the left.

[scoop]

FYI, I have a 'faux' sand bed, like Randy mentioned above, it looks like sand and it protects the bottom (although I don't think falling rock could break it anyway.) Most people put something on the bottom of the tank, it eventually gets covered in coraline anyway.

[Alittlefishy]

Scoop, any instructions on that faux sandbed? My wife has always wanted black sand, and this might be the way to do it.

[scoop]

Sorry I don't know how to connect you to the thread, but if you do a search for 'faux sand bed', the 8th post down is a 'how to' by Geoff. I followed those instructions. He also shows how to build it so you can take it out someday if you later change your mind (or you could just put sand over it). I think using black sand could look really cool, I used to have a black sand bed in a 30 gl, but I never thought about it as my fsb.

[AquaMan91]

i recommend goin barebottom!! i did it to my 8 gallon biocube and i love the results, lots of caves after rearranging the aquascape...my shrooms love it, im gonna put some GSP's on the bootom and have a GSP bottom....also my nitrates went down greatly(from 10 to 0!!!!)