Anybody running bare bottom?

[TexasState]

With all these sand talk, does anyone in the club have success with a high flow, bare bottom tank? I say high flow b/c there will be lot of fish poops accumulation in a low flow, bare bottom tank.

[Reefdude]

i thought you would never ask. I set up my 30 barebottom about a month ago and its doing great. havent had any problems with algae or cyano...and i hopin that the glass will become encrusted with coralline. I like it much better...sand/substrate always destroyed my tanks for whatever reason. It so easy...all poop/food sit in a little corner or two and all i have to do is siphon it out and its all clean again. Im not running a fuge..just extra life rock in the sump and prizim hang on skimmer..which i think was sent from heaven (thing pulls out plenty of stuff). I definatly recomended trying it to see if you like, its always easier to add sand than to take it out.

[Jimnorris]

Vinh,
I almost do. The front section of my tank has alittle gravel for my clams. The rear section is all bare! I have some big powerheads in the rear sitting on the bottom blowing water everwhere! I like this set up very much.
Jim

[Reefdude]

Jim,
Why exactly do you put gravel down for the clams???? They cant be put on bare glass???

[MikeP]

Hmm I just got that aragonite sand to doa real DSB in my 75. I may try near bare bottom in my 46 once I move everything.

Jim - I bought a small hippopus clam (my first) , I have him on the sandbed - tried rockwork and he wouldn't takehold but seems happy and open on sand. Are there problems with keeping them dirextly on sand (like maybe pest organisms could attack easier?) I wanted to keep him on sand in case I needed to remove him to give supplemental feeding though the tank is small and gets phyto 4-5 times a week - he's about 3 inches now so not sure if hes to primarily photsynthetic stage yet.

[Jimnorris]

Hippopus clams in the wild do not attach to rocks, they use their weigt to keep them in place. The only problem with keeping clams on a real fine sand is if something stirs it up this can get into the clam.
I like the looks of clams on gravel and also I keep maximas that will attached. If I had a glass botton then the maximas would try to attached.
I have see all types of clams on very fine deep sand beds and they have no problems???
The hippopus is a cool clam! Has it started to get reddish stripes on it's shell yet?
Jim

[MikeP]

Jim - thanks for info. No he's small - just the wavy green scutes and they kind of squarish shape - shell converges at almost 90 degre angle. Not as pretty as Tridacna clams but they are still kind of neat looking. I have gobies in this tank but they only seem to sift the sand occasionally, most of their food they grab off surface as it floats by.