Going barebottom, tips/tricks/advice (clothes not mandatory, ;) )

[jhale]

I thought about this. I would use a stiff foam to cut into the shape of the slope, then lay the glass over this and silicone it in place. that would prevent any pressure being placed on the slope. this would be in addition to the regular bottom.

 

[ShaunW]

Thanks for the tip Jonathan, but I think that I am going to put a filter sock between my sump and main tank, i.e. picking up debris.

 

[jhale]

the filter socks work well, you just have to change them often.

I left one on and forgot about it, after a few days the water was spilling over the top of the sock

 

[DRZL]

when I clean my sump I usually drain the whole thing and siphon all the junk out. this lets me perform a 45 gallon water change and gets the sump and skimmer looking like new. I just did this yesterday, and boy did the sump need to be cleaned. there was a pretty good pile of detritus sitting in the skimmer section, that was one dark bucket of water that got poured down the toilet. When I see that it makes me glad the only litter box in my house is the one my cat uses :wink1:

thats what I do! my sump holds about 30 net gallons, and I empty it out completely and you should see the crap I pull out!!!!, goes to show rocks will not stop really cooking for a few YEARS (have 60 lbs. LR in the sump)

I actually have a rubbermaid full of old WC water w/ detritus settled, PIC TIME!!! ill post in a few

This is out of a year old system, mind you

GAwd I love BB :tongue1:

 

[jhale]

I'm glad I'm not the only one

I had some scary looking black junk at the bottom of my sump.

It had not been cleaned for a month though.

I get stuff that looks like sand in the bottom of my water change buckets.

I'm glad most of it stays at the bottom of the bucket, that can't be the best thing to flush all the time.

I think the crap is just always there, no matter what, fish keep pooing, and rocks keep spewing, it's all got to go somewhere at least with BB you see what your getting out of your tank. It's not pretty guys. Maybe DRZL's pic will help you see the light

 

[Dace]

SOLBBY hope everything is going good with your project. my starboard comes tomorrow and will probly be up all day making that change. i hope i dont have a hard time cutting out the overflos. will be waiting for the details and possibly pics if you have, Thanks David

 

[ShaunW]

Please let me know how you went about it. in detail. also how are you levels. do you think your tank may cycle. Did you glue the starboard down, and did you glue around the glass. how many pieces did you have to cut the board into to get in tank. do you have any cross bracing. can you take some pics. did you take pics of the process. are you getting tired of my question lol.
cause i need to know, my starboard will be in on thursday so i will be doing my 180 on sunday. had to cut into three pieces to fit in tank then will have to cut out over flo.

Everything went well, I lost nothing. My tank didn't re-cycle at all. It took me 8 hours to complete the job. I don't have any pictures from the move because I don't have a camera anymore, .

After I was complete, my skimmer went nuts, so that I completely filled my collection cup twice in about 12 hours time. But it stopped after that, and is presently pulling out a normal about of skimmate for my tank.

Tips of the top of my head:
1. make lots of make up water (I made 80 gallons of salt water).
2. have lots of towels ready. I spilled water everywhere, .
3. use a dust pan to remove sand, but after all the big sand particles have been remove use a syphon to remove the small particles.
4. Initially I removed all corals and placed them into big plastic containers (45 gallon). I use the water from the tank to host them, with a heater and powerhead placed inside. Once I caught my fish they went in there too.
5. Base rock and rock not containing corals went into another 45 gallon container with a powerhead inside.
6. Remove all water into 30 gallon garbage cans to be put back after the sand has been removed.

The total time that my tank was exposed to air was probably 2 hours at the most. I surprisingly didn't lose my coraline algae all over the back wall/overflow/pumps of my tank, . But I did keep it wet most of the time manually. So I am happy that I was able to maintain the "old" look that my tank has.

Once the sand was gone, I put the water back, and then spent the next 24 hours replacing my rock to it's original state. Overall my tank almost looks the same as it did with the sand. Just a black starboard bottom, that you actually don't really notice because of my clams and ricordea filling the bottom of my tank.

 

[ShaunW]

I had to cut the starboard into two pieces to get it inside my tank, since I have glass on the top of my tank. You don't even notice that it is cut!

 

[jhale]

now a full ricordia bottom would be sweet, expensive but sweet.
that would be much more manageable than my anthelia bottom.

D, you can get some large spray bottles at HD and fill them with your tank water.
every few minutes just spray the sides of the tank, everything will be fine.
just think of all the stuff that gets exposed to air in the reefs when the tides go out.
some of the reef tops are totally exposed for hours.

 

[ShaunW]

My general impression is that I really like the new look. Most people complain that BB look unnatural. Well I now believe that the reason is because of the rock work. You can make it look natural with the right rock placement.

I put two maxijet 1200 on the bottom of my tank, left and right back corners. I have one blowing straight upward towards the top of the water column, the other is blowing across the starboard. Two tunzes are at the top of the tank. Water is moving around and nothing is settling too badly. As I suspected my rock is not shedding too much (and what is shedding is sand), so that IMO is an exaggeration (rock shedding), but my tank is mature and may not behave similar to a less mature tank.

 

[DRZL]

My general impression is that I really like the new look. Most people complain that BB look unnatural. Well I now believe that the reason is because of the rock work. You can make it look natural with the right rock placement.

I put two maxijet 1200 on the bottom of my tank, left and right back corners. I have one blowing straight upward towards the top of the water column, the other is blowing across the starboard. Two tunzes are at the top of the tank. Water is moving around and nothing is settling too badly. As I suspected my rock is not shedding too much (and what is shedding is sand), so that IMO is an exaggeration (rock shedding), but my tank is mature and may not behave similar to a less mature tank.

dont speak too soon... you shall see my friend!
I'd bet my left testy on it !

BTW you need more flow on the bottom...get yourself a seio1500 or a Tunze 6060, its not enough! you need broad flow to sweep it up into the water column in a tank your size.

I have 2 MJ 1200 on my 36G blowing directly on the bottom and even then I still see shortcomings.

I know I might be a pain in your backside now, but I rather be honest than fluff your arse, you know.

 

[ShaunW]

Your not a pain. It is great to hear your opinion. I have two maxijets and two Tunze6060, plus the return pump. They collectively generate ALOT of flow. I don't know about having much more than that in a 120. Anyway, we will see, since I don't want to spend another $150 on a new tunze at the moment.

 

[jackson6745]

Shaun I can't wait to see the pics of the new BB tank

 

[Dace]

I had to cut the starboard into two pieces to get it inside my tank, since I have glass on the top of my tank. You don't even notice that it is cut!

did you glue the starboard, did you empty the tank completely and tried to clean or hose down before putting everything back in, did you install the starboard with water in the tank, thank david

 

[ShaunW]

did you glue the starboard, did you empty the tank completely and tried to clean or hose down before putting everything back in, did you install the starboard with water in the tank, thank david

No I didn't glue it, too much of a pain in the ass.

Yes I emptied the tank completely and washed the bottom 1 inch of the tank with fresh water to syphon up all the debris not removed by the dust pan.

I installed the starboard with about 1/2 of water. Nothing was on the bottom. Try not to get any small rocks underneath the starboard, this was somewhat hard to do since the starboard floats. You need to weight it down with rock.

 

[ShaunW]

Shaun I can't wait to see the pics of the new BB tank

Rich, it looks good. Almost the same as before, just no sand. If you remember my tank, not much of the sand was exposed anyway because of all the corals on the bottom of the tank. The same is true now with the starboard.

I don't have a camera right now, . So I need to get one before I post pictures.

 

[DRZL]

Heres 4 weeks worth of detritus on a 1yr old system(I religiously clean the sump every WC)
I also have socks covering my overflow so its not from the tank

 

[ShaunW]

well that's alot. Better out than in, as the old saying goes.

 

[nanoreefer22]

So now I've gotta ask...thats some nausty stuff...why keep around???

 

[DRZL]

So now I've gotta ask...thats some nausty stuff...why keep around???

EXACTLY!

My work here is done...

:afro:

j/k