Can I switch to bare bottom ?

I have a 90 gallon reef tank that has been up and running for a year and after a month of reading up on the subject I am seriously considering switching to a bare bottom tank, but I have a few questions.

1) Can I actually switch by taking the sand out over time, and is that the best method.

2) Considering the way I set up my elevated rock work will it look ridiculous once all the sand is gone.

See the before picture


How could I possible hide all that PVC

3) Will it have any affect on my YWG and Pistol Shrimp ?

4) Does it work with just the glass bottom, not covered by anything like star board.

5) Any anything else I may be forgetting.

 

2) Considering the way I set up my elevated rock work will it look ridiculous once all the sand is gone.

You could fill in the gaps with more rock?

I ran my tank bare bottom with just glass for awhile and then added sand (weird right?)

 

If you have burrowing fish/critters it will indeed stress them unless you can convince them to shack up in a container of sand, but then you have an ugly container of sand to contend with. Personally, I'd leave the substrate.

 

Could really affect your water quality

 

I have to say that the ONLY time I ever crashed a reef tank was when I switched it to BB when I moved...never could get a handle on it and watched it all go south.

 

I have read about people who have switched over months, siphoning out the sand bed little by little during water changes.

 

I did it without issue. Edit - I put some of my sand in a filter sock and kept most of the water.
http://www.3reef.com/forums/sand/back-cutting-board-101688.html

 

I slowly pulled sand out before I switched tanks and didn't have to many problems. I did get rid of my pistol and goby when I switched to BB.

 

As for your PVC - I'd take it down to 1" pieces in height at the base so you can hide them better or get rid of them and use putty possibly.

 

i would definitely remove the Goby and shrimp if you go BB.