Bare Bottom Tank

[Rocks]

Am thinking of coverting my tank to bare bottom ... doing so with 2 SEIO 820 as circulation and a Rio32HF as return enough for a 3x2x2?

any comment?

CHEERS!

[Kurt Cobain]

...i tink enough liao....but i may be wrong....

calculate ....rio32f@8000l/hr + m820@3200l/hrx2...total...14000l/hr.. n ur tank 3x2x2.......powerful enough liao....

[Rocks]

...i tink enough liao....but i may be wrong....

calculate ....rio32f@8000l/hr + m820@3200l/hrx2...total...14000l/hr.. n ur tank 3x2x2.......powerful enough liao....

Rio32HF after head loss of 1.7m (height from sump to main tank) i think left only about 5000 litre/hr as such the total is about 11000 litre/hr ... still enough?

[Kurt Cobain]

Rio32HF after head loss of 1.7m (height from sump to main tank) i think left only about 5000 litre/hr as such the total is about 11000 litre/hr ... still enough?

..............if still not enough....get tunze6060x2.....

[Rocks]

..............if still not enough....get tunze6060x2.....

trying not to buy equipment unnecessary ...

why i am asking is cos' i heard some reefer saying bare bottom tank need strong circulation at the bottom of the tank to aviod any debris from accumulating at the bottom between rocks..

so if using 2 x SEIO 820, do i position them at the bottom of the tank?

CHEERS!

[madmac]

Rocks, if you put them below, jus make sure the flow is strong enough to bring the detritus up all over the water column...; if not they jus may end up on top of the rocks... which is a no no.

You'll need to arrange the rocks so that they stand at their points, like top heavy so that there is much unrestricted flow below(a real challenge, imo).

Follow thru' by tuning ur skimmer wet to pick up whatever is in the water column.

[hotlemond]

rocks,

if you have a chance, i recommend you go for M1100 instead. I am using 2 of those in my 3x2x2.5 sand bottom setup and it wasn't too strong, coupled with a strong Ehiem 1262 return and a M620 for behind the tank circulation.

Did you have anything to blow debris out throughtout the entire length on the tank behind? maybe you need to look into this?

try to achieve 10-20 times the circulation within the tank itself (can include the return). At which extremes of the scale to target at depends wat you wan to keep.

[weileong]

Rocks, if you put them below, jus make sure the flow is strong enough to bring the detritus up all over the water column...; if not they jus may end up on top of the rocks... which is a no no. 

You'll need to arrange the rocks so that they stand at their points, like top heavy so that there is much unrestricted flow below(a real challenge, imo).

Follow thru' by tuning ur skimmer wet to pick up whatever is in the water column.

simple, high flow at the top and reasonable flow at the bottom.

Raise all the LR with epoxy stands so the bottom 2-3cm has free flow for the water currents.

It's not always about the total flow you have but more even flow so that there is min dead spots You can have one 1mega l/h powerhead in your tank but that won't do too much good also

[Rocks]

Hey you guys (gals if any)... thanks for your comments, i will take note of those pointers mentioned above while planning to move BB sometime in Sept.

Was toying with the idea of have a low height egg-crate platform covering the area where liverocks will be placed on it. As such there will be a gap between the tank's bottom and the liverock which water current can blow between.

think it a good idea ? or a lousy one ...

best of luck to me ! ...

CHEERS!

[tayhonglee]

hi there,

im doing something like that for my tank as well. its a bb tank, and the bottom is an egg crate tied with little sections of wiring casings. i tried to take a picture of it, but its not very clear.

its working quite well. try to take note of the main direction of flow, and align the casings to it. helps blow detrius away for me. the problem i have is that i didn't attach enough casings, so now some parts of the base is sagging under the weight of the rocks. maybe it might help you if you were to add more support. i will have to dismantle and redo mine.

henry

[Rocks]

hi there,

im doing something like that for my tank as well. its a bb tank, and the bottom is an egg crate tied with little sections of wiring casings. i tried to take a picture of it, but its not very clear.

its working quite well. try to take note of the main direction of flow, and align the casings to it. helps blow detrius away for me. the problem i have is that i didn't attach enough casings, so now some parts of the base is sagging under the weight of the rocks. maybe it might help you if you were to add more support. i will have to dismantle and redo mine.

henry

Hi Henry,

thank you for your respond and pic.. basically that's is what i have in mind.

I want to create egg-crate platform of different height for the liverocks to place on it thus creating caves effect at the same time maintain the small gap between the tank's bottom and the liverock.

Suggestion... when you re-do yours you might want to cut / shape your egg-crate such that your liverock can camouflage the egg-crate.

Thanks for sharing !

CHEERS!

[madmac]

Or put in a second "false floor" glass/starboard slab on stilts... make 'trap' holes/slots where the detrital matter will fall into, then on one end of the tank(say the left side) install a rain bar (on slow flow)pushing the water column in-btw towards to right side... this will get the detritus concentrated on the right, where it can be siphon/drain out.. or even connect input hose end of the skimmer where they will be auto exported. It pretties the tank.