The Great Debate- Bare Bottom VS Sand Bottom
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 29 เม.ย. 2024
- Over the years there has been a great debate in the hobby on what is the best substrate for your reef tank. Is it sand or is it bare bottom? Join Victor and Josh as they take a little trip around the Orlando store to talk about what kind of substrate you should use in your aquarium! They discussed bare bottom, medium ReBorn, and large ReBorn from Two Little Fishies, Caribsea Special Grade Sand, and Fiji Pink Sand. Let's see which option requires the least maintenance, has the best health impact on your aquarium, and overall pros and cons. Also, find out which type of bottom Victor and Josh personally prefer their aquariums.
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I have a sand bottom. I NEVER clean the sand. I don’t have filter socks or a roller. My only filtration is a skimmer. I have a bunch of fish. I feed heavy and my nitrates and phosphates are low. Phosphate 0.03 low! Mainly sps but a few lps and even some mushrooms. My tank is about ten years old. There are a million ways to skin a cat…..
yeah there's a guy @CJSAQUARIUMS who documents his journey with the fiji pink (fine stuff) and once his tank is cycled, uses pods to clean the sand and removes all mechanical. seems to work
Is it a shallow sand bed or a DSB? If you have enough critters(and/or sleeper gobies) they will be cleaning the sand for you, as it is in nature.
@@WorldWideCorals it’s not “deep”. It is about 2 - 3” deep. I have one wrasse and 8 nassarius snails which “stir up” the sand bed in a 4’ tank
Appreciate all the hard work guys 👌🏽
And we appreciate you taking the time to watch our videos!!!! Thank you 🙏🏻
Another great video guys!!
Thanks for watching it Shawn!!!!
This is the video I been waiting for. Lot of info.
You watch, we produce!!!! 😎
Good insights 😊. Thanks!
No problem! Thank you for watching!! 😎
Bare bottom!! i run a 200 gallon fowlr that is bare bottom because i have 19 fish 6 of them are big. The ability to increase flow maximum for an hour or two a day keeps the tank CLEAN. Its been up for about 3 years and i am starting to put soft corals in it.
It has taken a TREMEDOUS amount of time to cycle, longer than you stated a mere 4-6 month. It was about a year and a half before she started to level out, i have been keeping saltwater 23 years. It has a large sump with many gallons of ceramic media balls, i thought it was overkill, but it took a really long time to build up the beneficial bio even with a lot of fish.
great video guys!
Make sure you send us photos we would love to see the tank!
I started my tank with the smaller reborn media too. It definitely grows hair algae at first. I used a kitchen spoon to scoop out the sections with hair algae and put it in a bucket with hydrogen peroxide for a couple minutes then rinsed clean. It destroys the hair algae and sets it back a few weeks. I did this for a couple months until everything stabilized and it’s been golden since. Once it gets covered with purple CCA the hair algae doesn’t come back. It’s my favorite substrate so far, very easy to siphon clean, doesn’t blow around and still has the look of sand. Rubble is the natural reef substrate so it looks very natural. It may be a pain at first, but once you get through the ugly phase of it, you’ll love it.
Agreed. Vic went through exactly what you are describing in his office tank with the reborn. Once that time has passed, no more algae and beautiful coralline covered substrate from that point on. It also did not help that his tank was brand new lol 😂. Love it!!!!
Great video! I have a 15 gallon and was thinking of using the Reborn. Not sure if the 8.8lb bag would be enough?
i added Fiji pink when i first started my tank but it blew everywhere i added special grade to the high flow areas and has done well for me
Special grade is my go to on installations. I love it!!!!
I did bare bottom in a 60 cube for 6 years between '99 and 2005. Loved it. Next tank will be bb.
Love your content WWC.
We love it!!!! If it worked for you, no reason to change!!!! Thank you for taking the time to watch this video 🙌🏼
just received a custom ABS cutting board with half inch space on every side away from the glass for my bare bottom that I am building rn. I’ll need this video
Looks like this video came right on time!!! Thanks for watching 😎
Love my Fiji pink and finally got it to where I just rake once a week. Clean up crew does it's thing, but was a pain to dial in the flow just right with a mixed reef but totally worth it.
I love the look of fiji pink sand too!!! The only drawback is the limitation on how much flow you can have in the tank.
I love the Fiji pink sand . Like you said it’s a lot of work to keep it clean. I’d you have high flow the other option would be better. Great video. I would try tank 2 if I had to do it over to try something new. Great video
Thank you for watching!
The biggest con for bare bottom for me is that I love my wrasses, a lot of them need sand to sleep in! I’m a bit OCD anyway so happy to weekly siphon my sand bed for my wrasses! Great video!
Those wrasse are living their best life with you!
You guys are great. Maybe do a poll on this subject.
Thank you Mr.Garcia!!! We appreciate the support. Might be worth someone making a poll about this on Reef2Reef!!!!
@@WorldWideCorals yeah you're right I noticed some poles on TH-cam Don't really get much attention but this seems like a Good topic. I stop using reef to reef because some people are pretty uptight on there to say the least.
Love the reactor media!!❤
It was worth the experiment that we did. A great find!!!!
I remember that tank
Using media also makes it easy for re fragging zoas and mushrooms, since they grab a hold of it
That is exactly what we do. We use this media for loose leathers and mushrooms to grab onto. It's versatile!!!!
I like pistol shrimp and goby pair, various sand shifter's. Sand bottom will always be my choice.
💪💪
Good Stuff ! 😊 Seems like the reborn your cooking is a good idea for a new tank . Maybe after 6 month or so if you want bare bottom , slowly remove it . Would you use srarboard if you weren't concerned about dropping a rock on the bottom ? You Guys work good together . 😊
Thanks for watching!!! Yes, we would have used starboard if not reborn on some tanks.
Special grade and reborn has been awesome for me
we love it as well.
Same. I have both in both of my tanks.
We love both!!!
I think Julian said the larger Reborn requires a CITES permit and became hard to import until recently
Makes sense, due to the size of the material. Thanks for watching!!!!
Caspers looking good !!!
We keep our boy fed and happy!!!
Let's go!!!
💪💪
Love my bare bottom. Every week I take a 4 inch long scraper and get all of the open glass walls and then hit the bottom of the tank. Don't have to worry about cleaning the sand or removing it when trying to remove the waste in/on it either. It lets me siphon water out fast just using my garden hose.
Agreed, it makes it simple for us as well. Considering that you(and us as well) cannot have certain fish that need sand to live, such as jawfish, some wrasses, gobies, etc.
Who’s media is in Vic’s office tank I like that size
My bare bottom tank has a layer of gha but its kept super low from the fish grazing it. Works for me it grows taking nutrient out and the fish eat it
That my friend, is the circle of life!!!! 🙌
Can you do a wrasse with the reborn media?
Yes and no. You CAN have wrasses such as fairies and flashers, but you CANNOT have wrasses that sleep in the sand, such as anampses or the halichoeres group(yellow coris, green coris, radiant wrasse, melanorus, etc). The media will damage(and kill) fish trying to bury in it.
I have been contemplating removing the sand well established tank. How would you recommend doing it? Section at a time of a course of how long?
One section at a time. You can do this while siphoning out water with your water changes. The key is to do this carefully and not stir the sand up.
@@WorldWideCorals thank you
Could you use Just reactor media as here in the U.K. cannot see two little fishes media…?
Could you not add sand too a sump to cycle it the same way ?
I’m about to start a second tank & have been wanting to get bare bottom but with a lot of sand for my wrasse , only have two-three which sleep in the sand, the fairy wrasses seem to just sleep in the rocks…
Any tips please ?
We can't say that all calcium reactor medias are the same, so we can only speak about something that we have used. As long as the media is a natural media made from coral skeleton, it should work the same(keeping in mind the size of the pieces that come in various reactor medias). Adding sand to the sump will have the same function as in the tank. The drawback is the small area you have to work with(not much surface space for the sand) and the fact that it would be easier for sand to get inside of your pumps.
@@WorldWideCorals appreciate the feed back , thank you very much.
Dang it, 3rd.
What was Vic name of RC?
Did he get banned?
Not sure, but we'll ask him for the SN!!!
I hand a 120 with 60gallon sump with a skimmer and socks with a refugium. I had a deep sand bed. 4 inches to 5 inches in some places in the tank. 2 years into my tank I have a spike in nitrates that I couldn’t come back from. I had total tank failure 1 year of cleaning and hoping I can save the tank but every sps died. I got rid of the fish and closed the tank down. I was super depressed. I’m starting up the tank again and will do bear bottom!! I’m a fan of heavy flow and sps, I also love have allot of fish in my reef. Bear bottom seems to be my way too go.
Go for it my friend!!! Make sure that you have a good amount of flow to keep the detritus in the water column and some great mechanical filtration to catch the particles 👍
6:16 Jake Adams have the same principle
Lots of corals are also found on the sand bed and deeper, Im thinking Western Australia. So not really an argument except if you are going full SPS
What rock have you used in the 4000 gallon?
That is Marco Rocks shelf rock.
Great thanks guys
When you guys rinse your sand, do you use freshwater or SW? Does it cause a Nitrate spike? What rational do you clean at a time?
We do not rinse our sand. We only use livesand. As for reborn, it comes in very clean and does not need risning.
Right now working on setting up a new tank I brought home from Reefapalooza. Really struggling to decide between barebottom and the large reborn
As seen in this video, both work great. Keep in mind the pros and cons for both and decide what you can and can't live with(for example, if seeing a detritus pile section of the tank will bother you, go with reborn).
You talk about having bacteria in the sand, but I'm very surprised that you don't mention the vast amount of animal biodiversity in the sand. In Europe a lot of importance is given to that. Greetings from Spain.
Hello from across the water!!👋👋
I hate fiji pink. I have it in my 40g breeder and it always looks dirty unless I constantly clean it. Any recommendations on changing it out for the larger reborn media? Any downsides? I've read where it can have a negative impact on nitrates and right now, everything is perfect other than the looks
You can simply add the reborn on top of the fiji pink, or slowly remove the fiji pink(a little each time via a siphon tube while doing a W/C).
fiji pink is a pain in the a** (the special grade stuff), speaking from experience here
Fiji pink is surely not as easy to keep visually clean as the other choices.
To each their own but i do not agree with bare bottom being more natural. Sand is definitely present on a reef while a perfectly flat surface with coralline on it isnt.
If you are going for that natural look for sure!
So gobies with Fiji pink 😂
Nothing a diamond goby or two can't tackle!!!!
Do you guys know anyone who has caribsea CORALine gravel?
Never heard of that product.
Barebottom: cause space is precious☝️
Space is king!
Sand = Liberal
No Sand = Conservative
interesting... how so?
Background music too loud on this one.