New to Barebottom

[Larry Waughon]

I shut down my 180 DSB 1.5 ago. I am starting back with a 120 gal that I am going to try BB. If you were starting again would you go BB? I will have pleanty of flow (3-6101 Tunze's). It was great to find this forum.
Thanks Larry

[Loverotties]

Welcome to TRT!

[Hop]

I would say that Geoff would be the one to talk with it about along with a few others. Personally I like the theory, but hate the looks of it on my tanks. There are some great looking tanks here and outside the forum that are BB. I'm willing to suck up the extra maintenance to afford keeping some of the critters that IMO make a tank

[Debs]

I had crushed coral from 10 years ago, slowly eliminated it and eventually ended up with bare bottom. I like the look and find it to be alot less maintanance. No more nitrates for me.

[Larry Waughon]

Originally Posted by Debs

I had crushed coral from 10 years ago, slowly eliminated it and eventually ended up with bare bottom. I like the look and find it to be alot less maintanance. No more nitrates for me.

This is what I need to give me that last little push. What about corals fading in color?

[Dagrape]

When I converted from my 25gal to my 90 gal I went BB. I didn't like the look of glass or starboard thoug so I went with a False sand bed. I find it very easy to maintain, and with a ton of flow you NEVER have to worry about sand storms!

[Dagrape]

Originally Posted by Larry Waughon

This is what I need to give me that last little push. What about corals fading in color?

Use less intense lighting....or run intense lighting for fewer hours a day! I have (2) 175W MH over my 90gal....my SPS are growing and doing great.

[Viv]

I've had difficulties here and there...adjusting to the BB takes a little time. I don't think I'd ever go back to a substrate bottom-especially in a large tank....I have a small 29 gal. that I'm seriously thinking of changing over to BB...the 29 is a sand bottom and currently is soaking up all kinds of junk...for me, the 29 is taking a lot more effort to keep clean...but in all fairness to sand bottoms, well, they have never really worked that well for me....neither did crushed coral for that matter...personally, I say give it a try...you could always add sand later if you don't like it.

[Jflip2002]

I kinda think it depends on what you want to keep in your tank. With BB, you need to have massive amounts of flow. With massive amounts of flow, some softies and LPS arent as happy as they should be. But if youre looking to SPS, I think its THE way to go.

In my 60g cube, I have a couple Tunze 6045s, and a modded MJ1200. And its barely enough flow to keep the detritus suspended, or at least in the rear corner of my tank so I can suck it up. but its definitely more than my frogspawn likes.

Also, you get to use less lighting, which saves you energy, and also increases the range of coral you can keep in your tank, as far as lighting needs go.

So my vote would be go DSB if youre going softies and/or LPS. but BB if youre going SPS. Just my $.02