I went bare bottom

ynot65 · 10/08/2013, 08:54 AM

My epic nitrates drove me to a bare bottom tank. Just thought I would post a few pics and where I'm at now. I allotted 3 hours for completion due to the ambient temp of the room and stressing the fish. My tank is a 55gal and may be viewed by visiting my page on RC. I am building a new sump for for my 150gal. "Independence Tank" build so I used the new sump to house 25gal of the existing water and the fish and corals. Here's where my 1st oversight was, when I was placing the corals into the tank it occurred to me that I had to leave extra room so the corals wouldn't wage war on each other. 2nd problem, I had completely forgotten how many corals that I had acquired over the last year, luckily my wife donated one of her Rubbermaid totes which worked well. Alas 3 buckets later the DT was empty, NOTE; buckets are near worthless for holding rocks that have any kind of livestock attached to them. So now I've used up 15gals of the 30gals of new water that I had made the day before by putting the rocks directly into them for storage and not rinseing them off first. Another note, no matter how much you love your grandchildren and or pets this is neither the time or place

. So all in all we pulled it off in just under 3 1/2 hours and I lost no fish and only 1 feather duster. My nitrates are now at 60ppm vs the 120+ readings I was showing and I feel that the next few water changes will get my levels back into the real world. I can see now that I will be shuffeling things around for the next couple of weeks. The only one of them that seems lost is my yellow watchman and his pistol shrimp but I think they have moved into a rock. I thank all of you for your help and suggestions in getting me to this point and hope my experience will help the next person who goes BB

Reefin' Dude · 10/08/2013, 09:58 AM

having a naked bottom is liberating.

G~

dax123 · 10/08/2013, 10:43 AM

My epic nitrates (>100 for over a year) made me contemplate the same, but I went completely in the other direction and put in a DSB. It took close to 8 months but my nitrates are down to about 10ppm and stable. I like the look of sand, but in your case you get 6 inches of additional space compared to me. Good for you.

10/08/2013, 09:58 AM	#2
Reefin' Dude Registered Member Join Date: Apr 2003 Location: Durham, NC Posts: 739	having a naked bottom is liberating. G~ __________________ Friends don't let friends use refugiums. Current Tank Info: Not dead yet.

10/08/2013, 10:43 AM	#3
dax123 Registered Member Join Date: Sep 2013 Location: toronto Posts: 59	My epic nitrates (>100 for over a year) made me contemplate the same, but I went completely in the other direction and put in a DSB. It took close to 8 months but my nitrates are down to about 10ppm and stable. I like the look of sand, but in your case you get 6 inches of additional space compared to me. Good for you.