question about no substrate

[janastasio]

I currently have a 70 gallon tank that has been established with me for 3years, but was established with someone else for 10years. I moved everything in buckets!! The tank came with a cc substrate. I was thinking of switching over to sand, but now I am strongly thinking about going to no substrate. The tank is a reef with currently only 2 fish (2 sebae clowns) and 2 brittle stars, hertmeits, snails, ect. The tank is a reef with ALOT of live rock. Prob about 100lbs. What are your thoughts about no subtrate?

 

[spanko]

wI have a 29 gallon biocube with SPS coral running bare bottom. I love the way that when it is water change time you can siphon any accululated detritus out of one place, it all seems to congregate where the flow drops the heaviest particles. I have also noticed since I removed my substrate that the cleaning of the glass has gone from every day or two to once or twice per week. My sump has a ball a Chaeto and I run a skimmer. I would not go back on a SPS tank.

 

[flricordia]

I have tanks with none and with and it delends on what exactly you want in the tank. For my ric and zoanthid grow out tanks I have none and for my fish I have sand.
One of my first and best reefs was with fish, corals and no substrate. I had a ph attatched to a 1/2" pvc that went along the back and had holes drilled in it to blow the bottom debris to the front. I was able to syphon off about a quart of water with the debris every day and replace it keeping the tank crystal clear. This was when Florida LR was available back in the early 90s.
It was full of Christmas tree worms, not the poritis growing type.
One morning they began to spawn. I don't think this could have happened in a less pristine tank, but there again, substrate has many advantages also. Just depends on your goals as to what you want to keep.
Maybe give it a try, but I would suggest the spray bar along the back to keep the excess fish waste and such easy access removal since there will be less medium for bacteria to colonize. I think you would find the tank parameters a bit higher quality in the long run, just not place for many starfish, pistol shrimp and substrate dependant fish species. Snails and such will do just fine.

 

[janastasio]

Thanks for the replies. My big reasoning for this idea is that I have always had a fair amount of Nitrates in the tank and my thought is that it is most likely from the CC. I do have a cannister filter and just recently read someone suggestion about replacing the floss everytime you change the filter. Do you think this would be appropriate along with no substrate, and would a non substrate tank be appropriate for the 2 brittle stars that I currently have?

 

[janastasio]

bump, any other feedback?

 

[fishkid2]

Well imo I think sand is better. You get all those weird worms in there and everything.
But black sand shows off more color of the fishes and coral that are in your tank.

 

[sprang]

Are you running a sump (ref)?

 

[spanko]

Definitely clean the floss at weekly water changes. Also sand would be better than the CC. The CC is very coarse and allows detritus to accumulate within it. CC is used by a lot of aquarists but it requires diligent cleaning. As fishkid2 said if you are going with sand it is fine enough that the worms, pods brittle stars etc can work through it and keep it clean.
That said I love the bare bottom still. If I had a different inhabitant population like softies and LPS I would probably go back to sand though as they like a little "dirtier" water.