Bbq

[miniwhinny]

HA ha..not BBQ but BB Question!

Okay, I've ready everything I can so far on BB's on this site (still more to read though)

here's some questions...

I was placing some poster board under my tank this morning to stop light going right through into the cabinet. I noticed a huge difference in the tank color with different colored poster board (well...no duh) For instance..put blue under there and gosh the water, bubbles, heater etc all turned a blue shade from the light being reflected back..with that in mind I was wondering what people think is a good color to enhance corals or is just plain black the best?

Also the bottom covering...is anyone keeping a tiny paper thin layer of sand at the front of the tank where there are no rocks (for looks) of would it just clump and blow according to water flow? When you say BB is it really totally BB.

Thanks and sorry for the newb Q's

[dobejazz]

Some people to use sand just in the front for looks, The problem with it is most BB tanks have to much flow for the sand to stay put

[APFish]

I run two different ideas. I have a 55 that is painted black and I have black cutting boards for a bottom. The boards are due to the fact that the eel that lives in there likes to re-arrange things pretty often so I wanted something to pad the bottom. Next, I have a 75 that is glass bore everywhere. I have no problems with bleeching in either tank and like the growth that I get. I have never placed any sand in my BB because I run a spray bar so that nothing stays on the bottom.

Rob

[miniwhinny]

Thanks.

We're driving to "the big city" in a few days to shop for rock (no stores here) so I'm pretty excited. Will share pics when I have something other than water in my tank

[REEF-DADDY]

It all ends up covered with coralline eventually.....

[miniwhinny]

I ended up with plain cream/light sand colored poster board under. You can't really see it anyway because of the glass.

OKay another question for anyone not annoyed with me yet How much flow do I need in a BB29 is there a formula for how much water you need to be turning over?

Thanks (again)

[gman0526]

No formula, you have to figure it out once you know how you're stacking the rocks and not allow for dead spots on the rocks.

[miniwhinny]

Thanks

[APFish]

I am runnning about 3000 gph in my 55 and 3800 in the 75, some run more. I will be honest with you this is after a lot of encouragment from this site. I didn't think that it was possible. Lets talk the 55 for right now and this can give you a rough idea of how things can work. I skim off the top of the water with two outlets at the top of the tank. This water is returned from the sump via a spray bar across the bottom of my tank, make sure you have a vacuum break on this line. I then have two SEIO's placed in the rear corners up high blowing at an angle towards the center of the tank. I added a MJ 1200 behind my Berlin wall style rock pile blowing the length of the tank to keep everything in motion. My slow spots are now in the front two corners of the tank and when I do my water changes I simply siphon out these areas. This tank is set up as a fowlr and has some heavy nasty feeders. Whiskey was the one that pointed me in the right direction. I can't remeber if he had a formula or just what his experiences had been.

Rob