Back to the Cutting Board

Discussion in 'Sand' started by Matt Rogers, Jan 5, 2011.

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  1. inwall75

    inwall75 Giant Squid

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    The fastest growth I ever got out of SPS corals was in my 200g BB tank. I had worse lighting and worse flow and my wavemaker was me.....seriously. I periodically would use a piece of plexiglass to make waves in it.
     
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  3. bama

    bama Humpback Whale

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    I have been inspired! To get a piece for my 90 would be right at $100. That would be worth it. I am having major issues with sand moving around and exposing the eggcrate, which isnt that great to look at. This would look really cool on my 90 especially since the back is already black.
     
  4. xmetalfan99

    xmetalfan99 Giant Squid

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    Star board is another option. You can find it here and they will cut it to your specifications.
     
  5. sostoudt

    sostoudt Giant Squid

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    the color of the cutting board won't matter, over time they all develop a thick layer of coralline algae.
     
  6. Matt Rogers

    Matt Rogers Kingfish

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    lol. Funny how that works out sometimes. I am still trying to match a tank I had in 1993. EDIT - THAT SAID - POINT ACKNOWLEDGED - COOL TO HEAR.

    Cool. I am going to go to Home depot and pick up a hollow plastic tube and some hose - and a micron bag and vacuum into the sump. The black gets covered fairly fast with debris in my tank. Another vortech would help, but regardless - I am amazed in the amount of debris that comes out - no wonder sand gets fouled easily.

    Thanks - I had thought of that - hadn't realized there were other colors - I wonder how the difference in quality and price is compared to the route I took...

    I figured. But in the short term, black is nice. There would be a seriously ugly phase with white.
     
    Last edited: Jan 6, 2011
  7. xmetalfan99

    xmetalfan99 Giant Squid

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    A 48" x 18" piece of black starboard is about $30. I know World Wide Corals uses starboard for their BB tanks.
     
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  9. Magnus

    Magnus Sharknado

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    Sounds and looks like a good idea, Matt. My sand is starting to show some of those problems you were mentioning on your first post.

    I think that in due time coralline will stick to the board and you'll be watching "Pink Floor" live ;)

    Good luck with this, keep us posted.

    - Mag.
     
  10. Matt Rogers

    Matt Rogers Kingfish

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    UPDATE:

    + Cleaning the glass is great now. No more green edge at bottom where the sand was or sand in pads.

    - I lost my deresa clam. :p This clam was absolutely doing great until I pulled the sand. It seemed to recover when I put it in a reptile dish with sand but it was out in the front in the fish highway and the Coral Beauty got a taste for it. Saw it nipping the mantle several times. This really agitated the clam. Then the cleaner shrimp got in the game and was on it a lot too. Between the two and the lack of a deep sand bed AND the fact that it was no longer directly under the halide - the clam began to gape. A bit of chicken and the egg here as to what caused the demise but I ultimately take the blame here. I should have anticipated this issue when going bare-bottom. Deresa clams NEED sand and direct light IMO.

    So beyond this bummer - acro corals are doing very well with the cutting board setup. Apparently better than when I had sand.

    I had some algae build up recently but I attribute this to a break down I had with my kalk ATO combo recently. My ATO is back in business and I just started to manually drip kalk this week and have removed my Tunze kalk reactor as I can control the input better manually. The ATO arrangement would add a lot of kalk at once sometimes.

    What I would do differently is probably add another MP10 on the opposite side to help with debris build up that happens on the side opposite the MP10 I have now. It is manageable but worth noting. I will not get one because I think my Cardinal Fish are out in the open more on the side with less current. When I had the Tunze pump going they hid a lot because I think the current was too strong.

    And that is my update. :) Overall very happy I made the switch, just wish I thought of the clam and gave it to somebody instead of sending it over the edge. :p

    matt
     
  11. inwall75

    inwall75 Giant Squid

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    The 125 went up with sand because there's a few critters that I really like that require it. However, I sure liked my old BB tank.