starboard/seaboard and uhmw board questions

[jenniebutterfly]

i posted these questions under my tank thread but thought i would repost them here and try to delete them off my thread so that if anyone else has the same questions they could find the answers here

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so i am thinking of going bare bottom. i spoke with my dad today, he lives in oregon and builds boats, so i was asking him about starboard. he gave me a name of a company he gets it from and i called them up for prices and to get a piece of 1/2" approx. 30x12 for my 29 gallon will cost me about $30 plus shipping. but they call it seaboard here is their website http://www.multicraftplastics.com/ so i have to call my dad and see if he can get it cheaper since he buys in bulk. but my biggest question is how much room should i leave around the edges, or should i try to get as tight a fit as possible? also what are the benifits and what are the drawbacks of going bare bottom?


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oh, and is this a good price on it?

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haha and one more question, would the uhmw board (ultra high molecular weight) which is much cheaper work as well? the only difference is that the uhmw is not uv protected so i was wondering if it would be a problem. i think i am going to start a new thread on this question now lol

 

[cali_reef]

Check with Jackson(Rich), I know he is using starboard in his new tank.

I used a piece of 1/8 inch thick white acrylic in my tank, Starboard was too expensive for me too.

 

[jenniebutterfly]

well i don't think that the price is bad considering what i would spend if i bought live sand. just wondering mostly if i can get it local cheaper, and the pros/cons of it

 

[jackson6745]

The only reason why I went with starboard intsead of a cheaper alternative, like PVC board or white acrylic, is because I didn't know any better

It cost me $75 to get enough starboard to cover my 120G from the cuttingboardcompany.com. I could have done it for about $40 if I ordered PVC board from Usplastics.

 

[jenniebutterfly]

so what do you see as the pros and cons on it rich? i am hoping to get it for free, my dad is in the process of building a boat and he is using it on the doors, he said he may have some left over, hopefully in one large sheet. i just could not decide, and i have never seen one in person. but i guess if i don't like it, it won't be too hard to add a thin layer of sand for looks. but i really think i want to try the bare bottom thing so i can grow the zoas and shrooms on it

 

[ShaunW]

If I could jump in here,

.

There are many pros to going BB. The biggest one is that you are more in control of your nutrient degradation (removal of rotting waste from overfeeding and fish excretion). You can use lots of flow to get any macro-waste (dendritus) into the water column and have the skimmer remove it (skimming wet).

Additionally DSB crash! because it boils down to this - after considerable time (years) the anaerobic/microaerophilic population of bacteria present at the bottom of the DSB push into the aerobic region of the DSB and begin to compete with the aerobes. Once this happens phosphate is released by anaerobic bacterial death as oxygen hits them and from the wake of two competing bacterial populations (anaerobes vs. aerobes) literally going at it for nutrients.

The major con is that it is an acquired look! that is not as aesthetically pleasing as sand to some reefkeepers.

 

[jhale]

hey Jennifer,
I got my BB from the cutting board factory,
http://thecuttingboardfactory.com/Merchant2/merchant.mvc?Screen=CTGY&Store_Code=TCBF&Category_Code=3x
if you call them speak to Joe, real nice guy.

I like the marinaboard I got from them, I went with black.
It does look different as Shaun pointed out, but I'm used to it now. It's started to grow coraline so in a year I'll probably have a purple tank bottom.

It does make it easy to clean any debris that sheds from the rocks. It also limits some fish you can have. most wrasses won't like not being able to burry themselves in sand. And any gobies that burrow in sand for sure won't like trying to dig a whole in the marina board.

I have to say I like having it, it makes moving rocks around the tank easy. You don't kick up a sandstorm when you pick one up off the bottom.

 

[jackson6745]

Originally posted by solbby:
If I could jump in here,

.

There are many pros to going BB. The biggest one is that you are more in control of your nutrient degradation (removal of rotting waste from overfeeding and fish excretion). You can use lots of flow to get any macro-waste (dendritus) into the water column and have the skimmer remove it (skimming wet).

Additionally DSB crash! because it boils down to this - after considerable time (years) the anaerobic/microaerophilic population of bacteria present at the bottom of the DSB push into the aerobic region of the DSB and begin to compete with the aerobes. Once this happens phosphate is released by anaerobic bacterial death as oxygen hits them and from the wake of two competing bacterial populations (anaerobes vs. aerobes) literally going at it for nutrients.

The major con is that it is an acquired look! that is not as aesthetically pleasing as sand to some reefkeepers.

Yeah, what Shaun said

As for the appearance of the board, I covered it in epoxy and dipped it in southdown sand (like a chicken cutlet ). Right now it looks like a shallow sand bed in my tank. I'm sure in time when it's covered with coraline algae it will look less attractive, but it will still be more natural looking than a plain board.

[ April 12, 2005, 06:13 PM: Message edited by: jackson6745 ]

 

[jenniebutterfly]

oh jonathan i forgot i saw yours lol. yes, i do kinda like the look, and as it is now my sand bed in my 36 is a ssb. the deepest is in the back at 2 inches, and front is like 1/2" i just want a clean looking tank. going to call my dad soon and see if i am getting it for free

from the cutting board factory i got about the same price quote, but having my dad ship it for free is a plus

 

[pecan2phat]

Originally posted by jhale:

It does make it easy to clean any debris that sheds from the rocks. It also limits some fish you can have. most wrasses won't like not being able to burry themselves in sand. And any gobies that burrow in sand for sure won't like trying to dig a whole in the marina board.

LOL, Like Jonathan said!
My yellow coris wrasse had a headache for three days when he kept diving into the starboard after the lights went off.

 

[jenniebutterfly]

lol, yeah i don't go for the fish that like sand, i have a clown going into this tank, and will probably get one more small fish that likes to be out in the open. maybe a jewel damsel or something