Barebottom, keeping it poo free

[thedude]

Ok so I recently setup my tank to barebottom and have what I would consider a just silly amount of flow in it already. I have two Tunze Turbelle 7400's pushing water with a mag 5 return. All my rock is sitting on a pvc/egg crate rack so nothing is touching the bottom of tank. Yet, with all this flow, all kinds of crap is settling underneath the platform, where I can't get to it. Any suggestions on a pump that would do a good job sweeping down there, yet would be small enough to fit under a ~3inch platform? Any suggestions are welcome but I want to keep all this stuff suspended!

John

[jaded]

I might be way off, but I think you could easily plumb your returns (mag5) to sweep under there. If you did it out of small PVC it probably wouldnt look to bad. Maybe two spray bars (one on each side) to avoid deep spots?

[thedude]

Yeah I thought I had that accomplished jaded by incorporating 90 degree elbows underneath my rock structure. But for whatever reason, the flow coming out is so minimal that it can't even push small grains of sand. Maybe some locline pieces would have helped?

[gjuarez]

I have mine with a spray bar and it does the job. A lot of it doesnt get suspended but it comes forward so you can easily siphon it.
Jerry

[jaded]

A mag5 is not a big pump, especially if it’s below the tank. I suggested the spray bars because you could drill very small holes spaced wide and possibly increase the strength of each stream. You could also just use the plumbing you already have with a larger return pump. Of course the low-tech solution is to wave your hand toward the crud filled areas and run a filter sock to remove floating debris

[thedude]

So I'm thinking just undo the return into the platform (didn't glue it where it was underwater thankfully) and then rigging a spray bar along the back side of the tank. Do ya'll think this is the best idea to accomplish what I'm trying to get, or would some other return system incorporating locline work better? Also when you make a spray bar, do you simply drill holes down the length of pipe, as when I did this it seemed to work OK but not anything spectacular.

I have a mag 9.5 laying around that I was going to use as a return but even with two one inch bulkheads, my overflow has severe problems keeping up with it.

[pickle311]

I'm betting that all of that poo is comming out of your rocks. With super clean water and time, it will slowly dissappear. But until then make sure you get it out. Try moving your streams lower to get that stuff suspended. Also, the eggcrate is going to trap the poop and slow the water flow down there.

[jaded]

Its hard to answer that question. I would think you would need to tinker with it a bit to find out what is best. The 9.5 would be the easiest switch out and would probably be where I would start. Is your overflow built in (reef ready) or is it a HOB? If its a HOB can you add another tube?

[thedude]

Yeah it really is quite amazing what these rocks are leaching right now. It's almost the equivalent to cooking them. My Euroreef CS6-1 on a 30 gallon cube, needs to be emptied daily and I get a full cup of nasty, runny, skimmate that smells of pure evil...

[thedude]

Jaded, the overflow is built in customly by Fin Addict. It has two one inch bulkheads on the back and a calfo style overflow. With the 9.5 cranked all the way up, the gurgling noise those things make is intolerable and the bulkheads are horizontal and in relatively shallow water, making any kind of durso a "pipe dream".

[jaded]

hmmm... sounds like you have pvc in your future :) I think you could get what you want done with a couple pieces of pvc attached at both ends to a spray bar that runs along the back of the tank... that would help to "push" the poo out to the front of the tank where you could manually remove it much easier

do you have any pics of your current set up?

[thedude]

Not recent ones but I'll try to get a few full tank shots in the future. Honestly, it's really hard to tell anything as I've pretty much covered the platform using liverock, epoxy, and superglue 8)