Bioballs - What is so bad about them?

[That is an interesting point, Rick. I know it takes about 6 months for the DSB to be fully established, and putting a full reef on top of a new DSB could become problematic. Thanks for sharing your experience.]
 
[That raised another question for me Rick, without your sand bed in your main tank how will the tank remove the dangerous gases? Wont you just have another build up and run into the same problem? The sump cant do it all?]
 
[The liverock itself is as effective as a sandbed at removing nitrates. What gasses are you referring to, without the sand, there is no build up of gasses? You do have to remove waste as you do water changes by siphoning it off the bottom. Also by adding powerheads to blow directly at the bottom you keep it suspended to aid in the skimmer removing some of it. This waste that I am removing these processes would be remaining in a tank with a sandbed.]
 
[Misery you probably mean metals though toxic gases do build up but most of us think of them as metals. if you clean out you sand bed you will infect the water column with toxins. that's why the expert DR shimek is always quilty of being a pecimist. Some of us and a rare few seem to think the CPW if modified is the answer. Though it's still not proven long term.

p.s. rick Hydrogen sulfide gas. the orange stuff that clumps with the sand at the bottom... very toxic!]
 
@BrianC wrote:
[p.s. rick Hydrogen sulfide gas. the orange stuff that clumps with the sand at the bottom... very toxic!] said:
[I know about hydrogen sulfide gas, but if you will read his question. "That raised another question for me Rick, without your sand bed in your main tank how will the tank remove the dangerous gases?" Without a sandbed Brian there is no hydrogen sulfide gas.]
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[ahh, so what about the beneficial bacteria and critters in the sand bed? LR still holding that up? If all I need is Live rock then why do i need a sand bed again? I am very curious about this, when i first started in my 30 gal bow front i used crushed coral and was told to change it to sand.]
 
@misery wrote:
[ahh said:
[As far as I am concerned and many others(check reefcentral.com, bare bottom tanks) you don't. But like all others in this hobby, in the end its only one way to go. You understand though, you can not just put the rock on the bare glass bottom, first you put down some (HDPE) white cutting board and then the rock on that.]
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[you can go bare bottom but it look un attractive and unnatural. some fish particualry yellow coris wrasse have been known to sleep in sand beds.

The difference between crushed coral and san is you can have bacteria on every face of every grain of sand. with crushed corals it still does that just much less the faces are much bigger]
 
[Just another opinion, but from someone whom actually has seen the setup. :D The coraline is going to cover the bottom in no time at all, so you do not actually see the white over time. And I don't know about you, but I look at the corals, fish and liverock, not the sandbed. And anything to keep the corals and fish doing better is what I am after. And anytime you want to drive out here to Lucas to look at it your welcome to. I can not be very far from you in Plano.]
 
[Bare bottom tanks can look quite amazing. The bottom glass gets covered in coraline algae, a mat of GSP covering it. It certainly keeps nutrients to a low, with good flow you will get small deposits of waste easily removed with a small water cahnge, or they will remain suspended and be removed via filter/skimmer.

Both sand and crushed coral will have nitrifing bacterias, the porusness of the crushed coral is pretty good for bacteria. The problem is crushed coral and other larger grained substrates are monster detritus traps.

A sand bed on the other hand does not allow detritus to penetrate as easily, more likley to be swept back into the water column.

Crushed coral needs to be vacuumed every few weeks, a shallow sand bed needs to be kept well stirred and have filters to allow for good nutrient export.

IMO anyways...I've seen nice tanks kept with DSB, SSB, CC, BB...

If you do go bare bottom I would recommend painting the outside of the bottom glass black or white or cover it like Rick suggested.]
 
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