substrate

[greg65]

Hi all and happy 2006!


My new tank is almost filled and aquascaped ! (man, ro/di's take forever filling large tanks!)

I have been pondering the "bottom" of the tank for months , and still have not made up my mind on how I want to handle it. In the past Ive run DSB, SSb, BB, all of which can work but all have their inherent issues (either function, or cosmetic).

This particular tank , I have been planning on having a very thin layer of large sized crushed coral for the substrate, only in front of the aquascaping (cosmetic purposes only), but............ I cant seam to bring myself to do it. :^(

Its either the crushed coral or no substrate!

Tank: Inwall plywood/starfire . Approx. 350 gallons.
Total system volume around 450 +/-
SPS , clams , some LPS, and fish
TONS O flow- streams/red dragon/closed loop/duel surge
Heavily skimmed (BK)

Tank ready for prelim. unveiling soon!

Please share your opinions.
-Greg-

[nbd13]

Well like you i have ran them all (DSB, SSB, and BB) and like you said they all have their issues.

Personally i would try out the SSB (less than 1"), the only problem i had with mine is due to all the flow i had it would blow all over the place.

so i say try SSB if you like the look and if it doesnt work meaning the flow blows it all over. Then just take it out and run BB.

Have you considered doing a faux sandbed? like gqjeff?

i am running starboard in my 275 SPS tank now, the only issue with it that i have is that it doesnt look as natural as SSB. It is all covered with coralline algae now and its only been up 4-5 months.... (previsouly upgraded from a 180).

so i say try SSB, if it doesnt work then suck it out and run BB. just make sure to stir up that SSB so detrius doesnt settle in it over time. i would try and give mine a good stir every week or 2 (i used a turkey baster).

looking foward to the pics though!

Nick

[Miguelito]

I'm putting all my LR on carefully cut pieces of starboard, and substrate between the edge of the rocks and the end of the tank. Of all the things I love about BB, I love being able to take my LR out and not having a white tank!

I might replace my substrate every couple months like Tanu, SteveWeast and a few others I've seen.

Just some food for thought - my tank is much smaller than yours though!

[nyfireman3097]

thats insane to take out the sand and replace it every couple of months while tring to keep your sps happy and thriving

[scottw]

Don't do it Greg, leave out the shells. Your corals will thank you ..

[OUinLA]

I say either DSB or the crushed coral, but go small with the CC. Enough talking, show the dang thing already.

[Orion76]

I started my tank as a DSB and ended up removing it and now am glass BB. Seeing the amount of detritus that is trapped by anything placed on the bottom, even a small piece of rock, I will not personally put any crushed coral or SSB on the bottom eventhough it would sure look a lot better.

If I could start over from scratch I would make the bottom look like it was a rocky bottom with PU foam. I'll use something like Greatstuff and make an uneven gray bottom and perhaps push small pieces of crushed coral or gravel into it before it hardens, making sure that the surface is generally smooth so no detritus is trapped.

Something like this:

[trythechi]

BB or DSB

I'm a Zeo noob but have run tanks with various other systems - personally I now go for a BB appraoch to aid easy D removal - and have put white perspex over the glass bottom in my latest tank. I have tried faux sand ie spreading sand over silecone - but the sand doesnt uniformly stick and looks poor. Pic attached of white perspex BB for interest.

[7thheaven]

Wow..Orion76..That's cool....