Bare Bottom Right for Me?

[ralphie16]

Along with a giant brittle star, a small colony of camel shrimp, and a single scarlet cleaner shrimp, I have about 45 lbs of LR in a 30 gallon tank.

Right now there is nothing on the bottom except for 2-3 pieces of small rock.

No skimmer right now. Deciding on model to purchase. RIght now only HOB filter is used for mech screening and carbon filtering. Pad is replaced every weekend without fail. 40% of the water is replaced every weekend also from a 125 gallon FO tank that has excellant water conditions, and another 2-3 gallons replaced with freshly mixed saltwater.

I want to get the only fish I will be adding to the tank...the Red Sea Mimc Blenny. This little guy does well in captive care if allowed suitable microalgae to graze.

Cooking rocks would deplete the phospates in the rock and thus inhibit further algae grow. Does it inhibit the micro algae this guy grazes on? Or does cooking rocks rid the tank of nuisance algae that the blenny would not even go after? I think I am missing something here. Cooking the rocks would deplete a large "sunk" energy source for alage and therefore it would not be suitable for the algae grazing blenny, right?

[Little Luey]

Hi Ralphie16

I think everyone would benefit from running their system BB, but I am very partial to it also. I am sure what ever type of system you choose it needs to be properly cared for, if you decide going BB you need to know how to properly run it. I find it very easy to do my WC and maintenance on it. See a pile of debry and just vacum it out. Yes, cooking the rock will help get ride of all if not most algie, including what the hervibores will eat but you can always feed them algie sheets or nori.
One other thing

Welcome to the forum!

[panic]

Good water conditions for a fish only system is not always good water conditions for a coral system. I would switch your water change around by giving the fish only system the clean water from the bb tank. Your FO systems algae driven system conflicts with the bacteria system that bb keepers benefit from. Skimmers are a very important piece of the bb system. Not only does it remove organics and oils, but also reinfuses 02 back into the water.