I am onto my third tank now and this will be my first tank with sand...a very shallow sand bed of extra fine aragamax. My other 2 tanks were barebottom tanks with starboard (more on starboard below).
I will give you some of my observations and opinions about barebottom tanks and would be happy to answer any questions.
First of all WHY go barebottom in the first place? Well, a lot of people looked at my tanks when I was setting them up and shook their heads in confusion. Why would I want to have this great live rock, fish and corals all living on top of a piece of plastic? Well, for many people their is the misconception that a barebottom tank = NO siphoning maintenance. Totally untrue. In fact, for the barebottom method to be successful you MUST siphon regularly to remove detritus.
So lets mention some benefits of a barebottom tank and then we can better answer why someone would want to have a barebottom tank.
1. Easy to keep clean. Absolutely TRUE. Keeping a barebottom tank clean, at least the floor of the tank, is very easy. Regular siphoning (2-3x/week) is all it takes. Nothing fancy...a turkey baster will work fine. You just need to keep detritus from sitting on the bottom of the tank...remember, there is no sand bed to break stuff down.
2. High flow. With a barebottom tank and no worry of blowing sand, you can jack up the flow to unprecedented numbers. In fact, one of my SPS tanks had 65x water turnover per hour and I didnt have to worry about any sand storms. This also helps push detritus to one side for easy siphoning.
3. Clean look. Many people, including me, dont like the look of a deep sand bed. I dont like that dirty sand 3" up on the front glass...not my kidn of style. A barebottom tank looks clean and draws your attention to the corals and fish.
SO, those are some basic benefits to a barebottom tank.
Now, what do you put on the bottom...is it REALLY barebottom?
2 ways you can go with this (probably more, but most people do one of these things).
1. Keep it real...just glass. Personally I dont like this idea. I am not crazy about nothing on the bottom only because it gives weird reflections that drive some of the fish nuts. Most importantly, its hard to see detritus.
2. Starboard...ok, so what the heck is starboard? Starboard is cutting board. Thats right...nothing fancy. Best prices I have found are at
www.cuttingboardcompany.com. I would suggest the 1/2" white for the best price, but you can also get a colored board if you want to. I wouldnt stray from the 1/2", though. 1/4" inch has a tendency to bow with the weight of rocks and 1" is too heavy to work with.
After some time the bottom will get covered in corralline algae. The starboard enhances the purple, pink and green colors and really looks nice. The plastic also seems to attract the corraline that much more. So those people who say they use starboard because it gives light reflection thereby enhancing the amount of light in their tank either 1. clean their starboard very, very regularly or 2. dont know what they are talking about.
So...what are some DISadvantages to going barebottom. Well, there are a few.
1. No benefit of the denitrifying sand bed. Means you must SKIM MORE than others. I skim very aggressively and very wet to remove the most waste.
2. You cant keep sand dwelling animals. Some gobies, shrimp and certain snails will be pretty ticked off at you if you put them in a tank with no sand. Anemones too.
3. Snail poop is EVERYWHERE. I think that snails can poop out 4x their body weight in a day...or at least it seems like it. I went snail-less in my barebottom tanks. I got tired of siphoning their waste
4. Not a natural look. This is debatable...after the starboard gets covered with corraline most people couldnt tell if it was starboard or sand. It looked that nice.
So, some general rules for working with starboard.
1. Measure the inside dimensions of your tank and have the starboard cut 1/4" shorter on each side.
2. Gently sand the corners and edges, especially where the staboard may come in contact with the silicone seams.
3. You can choose to glue the starboard down if you want. I did not and never had trouble with detritus collecting underneath it, at least not in any significant amount.
4. A bandsaw is the easiest way to cut this stuff. It is more difficult to cut than plywood, for example.
Well, thats the down and dirty (or clean) of barebottom tanks.
I will be happy to answer any questions.
