Thhinking bout going barebottom.. Lets talk bout it??

well im thinking about going barebottom, not sure why, mainly cuz i havent ever had one barebottom..

need input from barebottom users and also input from professinals(steve wright, 2in10, coralline, m2343, powerman) and any other pros

setting up a 150 gallon, with around 120+ pounds of live rock..

i wanna have some good decently strong flow..

for flow i have so far:
MP40
mag 18 return pump

also gonna do a closed loop

 

I have a BB 90gal AIO. There are pros and cons. I'll chime in on the pros.
No sandbed to go bad
You can see if your tank is clean.
Way easier to clean
Lots of flow LOTS
This is just some pros

CONS
Fish limits
Loss of filter midia
Dont look like typical reef
Must elevate rock work
These are just a few cons.

 

so what made you decide to go barebottom..the only major pro i see in it is you can put MAD flow in a tank..

 

Why do you need to elevate the rockwork? BB tanks always have something along the lines of starboard on the bottom to protect the glass and absorb and forces from falling rocks.

 

I've done both and have to say I have a love hate with sand. I'm a big fan of wrasses so I tend to go with sand. But have a good friend who has wrasses in a BB.

I think if I was to go SPS again it would 100% be BB. Sand just stores too many nutrients and can leach everything back into your system

J

 

I love the look of sand, but if I were going to go bare bottom I would have to use some type of cover on the bottom like Matt Rogers used in his Neo Nano
http://www.3reef.com/forums/sand/back-cutting-board-101688.html

 

hmmm, that's pretty interesting...

I'm tempted to add that to my nano project

 

I elevate the rocks to keep unobstructed flow along the bottom. It will help keep particals suspended in the water colum. If your flow isnt enough to do that completly it makes cleaning alot eisier with tubing connected to a turkey baster. I am able to direct my flow so the crud piles up in the front of the tank for easy clean up during weekly WC.
I went BB cause it was impossible to clean the bottom of the tank with the rocks sitting on top of the sand. I would have to move the rock every time I wanted to siphon the substrate.
Another reason is I built my current tank as a large AIO. The better I clean my tank the better chance I have to keep my water parm in check. The sandbed is one item I dont have to worry about, cleaning or releasing nasty stuff in the tank if i decide to move around my rock work.

 

I have a BB Nanocube 28. Although you lose the extra filtration, you aren't losing much unless you have a DSB. I think BB gives the tank a more modern look to it. Easy to clean, or even make a close loop to add flow along the bottom to keep stuff from accumulating.

 

yeah thats what i was gonna do..still trying to decide on barebottom..

its gonna save me 100$ if i go barebottom