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"Bare-Bottoming" LOL

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indireef

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for those of you who barebottom, how is the pH and hardness in your tank, and how do you support good calcium/carbonate levels in your water?
kalkwasser? aragonite/ sand bed in the sump?

anyone have a bare bottom without any sump too? cause i'm doing sumpless and i'm guessing its safer to put down a decent sand bed of crushed coral sand rather than go bare bottom.

i do plan to dose kalkwasser all the time and it will be a mainly fowlr maybe a few peices of polyps or zoos or mushrooms...
 
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indireef said:
for those of you who barebottom, how is the pH and hardness in your tank, and how do you support good calcium/carbonate levels in your water?
kalkwasser? aragonite/ sand bed in the sump?

anyone have a bare bottom without any sump too? cause i'm doing sumpless and i'm guessing its safer to put down a decent sand bed of crushed coral sand rather than go bare bottom.

i do plan to dose kalkwasser all the time and it will be a mainly fowlr maybe a few peices of polyps or zoos or mushrooms...
Click to expand...

Crushed corals a no no.

PUtting a sand bed in the sump of a BB tank would defeat the purpose of the BB for the most part ;).
 
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indireef

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so what should i put down as the sand bed instead of crushed coral? aragamax special grade sand?

i am going to be using an undergravel filter, thin bed of sand, and live rock as the source of bioflitration and carbonate support. no sump, no power filter... maybe no skimmer. bioload will be real low. a miminimalist fowlr system with a few damsels or small fish, some polyps or mushrooms, lighting maybe 4 watts per gallon. tanks size 26g or 45g, havent decided yet.
 
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No sure about that sand, I'm not good with all the sand grades etc... but sand is definately better than crushed coral.

Another no no in the form of that undergravel filter. Also what kind of you gonna be running, watts per gallon isn't an accurate way to measure the amount of light a tank should be getting i.e. 175watts of Metal Halide lighting will outperform 175watts of powercompacts over the same tank. Not saying to go with these just using them as an example.

Keep in mind in a 26g with no skimmer you'll want to keep you bioload extremely low, maybe 3-4 small fish, if you're very diligent with your water changes.

JMO,
-Kris
 
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DEEPWATER

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indireef said:
so what should i put down as the sand bed instead of crushed coral? aragamax special grade sand?

i am going to be using an undergravel filter, thin bed of sand, and live rock as the source of bioflitration and carbonate support. no sump, no power filter... maybe no skimmer. bioload will be real low. a miminimalist fowlr system with a few damsels or small fish, some polyps or mushrooms, lighting maybe 4 watts per gallon. tanks size 26g or 45g, havent decided yet.
Click to expand...

NO sump ,no skimmer ,no power heads ,crushed corals:headache: :scratch:
Man you are in a for a long ride with this one
How any corals ,fish are you planing to put in this tank ?
 
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indireef

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spykes said:
what is your rock made out of? calcium carbonate, what is your sand made of calcium carbonate. MY tank is BB with a PH of 8.1 at low, and 8.3 at high.
Click to expand...

ahh, thats what i wanted to hear, about the live rock counting as a substantial source of ca/carbonate and ditto on the sand (im mixing half pacific live sand with half aragamax special grade sand). spykes your ph sounds perfect, i dont see any spikes in that range, thas good. i remember i had the aquacontroller which i threw out when i moved, i rigged everything to be automatic, but that caused there to be like 4 power strips for one tank, and my getting shocked all the time. with the kalwasser dosing 24/7, the day ph was like 8.2 and the nite like 8.1 i remember before kalk on my BB the ph would go dangerously down to 7.7 at times.

i decided to do the 45 gallon first, and it will just be sfowlr -- err, small FOwith LR -- like 5 small fish the size of pygmy angel to atlantic blue tang... and 50 lbs fiji n tonga LR.

my previous main tank was a 90 gal which i thought was too big, but i gotta say the narrowness (12") of the 45 is killing me, yet fits into my "nano" requirements.

i'm going totally sumpless on this minimalist bare bones sw setup. no corals. its barely a saltwater. the lighting is just 4 tubes of NO 36" flos, thats all. my setup is so no frills. was' the name of the asian guy that was known for his minimalist setups like 25 yrs ago? like that.

does anyone here have a BB with no sump??

because my main interests are FW and FW shrimp :wink1:
 
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indireef said:
ahh, thats what i wanted to hear, about the live rock counting as a substantial source of ca/carbonate and ditto on the sand (im mixing half pacific live sand with half aragamax special grade sand). spykes your ph sounds perfect, i dont see any spikes in that range, thas good. i remember i had the aquacontroller which i threw out when i moved, i rigged everything to be automatic, but that caused there to be like 4 power strips for one tank, and my getting shocked all the time. with the kalwasser dosing 24/7, the day ph was like 8.2 and the nite like 8.1 i remember before kalk on my BB the ph would go dangerously down to 7.7 at times.

i decided to do the 45 gallon first, and it will just be sfowlr -- err, small FOwith LR -- like 5 small fish the size of pygmy angel to atlantic blue tang... and 50 lbs fiji n tonga LR.

my previous main tank was a 90 gal which i thought was too big, but i gotta say the narrowness (12") of the 45 is killing me, yet fits into my "nano" requirements.

i'm going totally sumpless on this minimalist bare bones sw setup. no corals. its barely a saltwater. the lighting is just 4 tubes of NO 36" flos, thats all. my setup is so no frills. was' the name of the asian guy that was known for his minimalist setups like 25 yrs ago? like that.

does anyone here have a BB with no sump??

because my main interests are FW and FW shrimp :wink1:
Click to expand...

Spykes has one but his skimmer kicks some serious @$$ :D.
 
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hermangareis said:
Youre like a parrot dude! LOL:sgrin: :D :joke:
Click to expand...

Yeah, like Herman said:
parrot1.jpg
 
jhale

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I think Tony's mantra is "good advice post it twice" :joke:

:grouphug:

my tank is BB, and I have a heck of a time keeping the alk up.
I use additives from seachem, I hat to say it but I may be getting a CA reactor soon. the reactor will keep your levels perfect. if all you are keeping are fish and live rock then the bb system will be fine, you WILL need a large skimmer and enough flow to keep the fish poo in suspension.
with a BB you must export the poo before it has a chance to break down, otherwise you will have a runaway sewage plant in your tank. Poo with no where to go = giant mess of nitrates and phosphates.
 
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indireef

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k, got it. BB with no sump = a skimmer is essential. can anyone recommend me a good skimmer for a 45 gal SFOWLR?

and, hmm... i suppose that " liquid reactor" additive they put out don't really work... has anyone tried or is anyone usin that stuff?

and where are all the people that have like foot deep sand beds? i'm surprised so many peeps here are pro-barebottom! i saw most BBs in the gal pics.
 
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