shallow or bare?

[wrassecal]

The lights are going back on in the 135. (I'm tired of only a 2.5 and a 12 g) with my beautiful 135 sitting in the dark. When we saved all we could (which wasn't much) from the algae attack in the 135 and turned out the lights we also took out the dsb.
So what do ya'll think? I don't want dsb again so should I go shallow sand bed (I left enough in to maintain some live sand) or bare bottom?

 

[golfish]

How about Starboard (cutting board) I went bare bottom on my new tank but I just couldn't handle the rock sitting on the glass. The Starboard was a nice addition to my tank.

 

[wrassecal]

Do you have a pic? Is starboard that real thin cutting board stuff?

 

[golfish]

you'll want to use 1/2" if you can....I paid 120.00 for a 49.5" x 99.5" sheet from my local plastic company. I used about 1/4 of it and sold the rest to get my money back.

 

[fishfood]

I also went with starboard but i order some black starboard on line. It looked great considering the back was painted black and my overflow was black. The purple coraline looked good but what i liked the best was the zoanthid carpet that i was starting to grow on it. I covered it with a few polyps of different zoanthids. They were slowly starting to fill in and it looked great. Unfortionatly with Hurricane Ivan i lost everything in that tank. I'm setting up a new 135 rr and have been thinking about which way to go. I wanted a few goby/shrimp pair in the tank and they didn't do well in a bare bottom tank.

 

[wrassecal]

Just what I needed, a third choice How long have you guys had the starboard? I kind of like this option.

 

[daniel411]

Theres a few people who'v glued/siliconed sand to starboard for SPS tanks with mad/turbulent flows. I'm thinking about trying it.

 

[nm reef]

Nothing to add to your question...other than I'd like to say I'm pleased to see you wrassecal...been a while. I certainly hope all is well.
I still make use of the ticking time bomb DSB...both in my display and in my refugium. If I ever have trouble with the sand in the display I believe I'll make the change over to star board or something similiar...'till then I'll stick with my sand. Lots of folks run a bare bottom display with success...I just haven't convinced myself to abandon my sand bed...so far I've never had any problems that I'm aware of and I like the appearence much better.

 

[kistheeze]

Shallow - 1.5-2.5" of southdown. You can have lots of crazy random flow (as mentioned) with a sandbed. You just need to direct it properly.

 

[wrassecal]

Originally posted by NM reef
Nothing to add to your question...other than I'd like to say I'm pleased to see you wrassecal...been a while. I certainly hope all is well.

Hi NM
All is well...took a while but things are good. I've been crazy busy with classes and work. Things are slowing down a little so I'm thinkin it's time for me to put hubby back to work on the big tank:yes:
I just took the dsb out because I don't think it's attractive on the sides, it wasn't causing the problem. The problem was lack of maintenance during a turbulent personal time-frame. Please note that 99% of the time I say "I" I really mean hubby. It's just so much easier for me work on the tank when his hands are in it and I'm sittin on the couch giving directions. I mean someone has to have the perspective of the viewer right?
Anyway, I really like sand but, I'm going to check out the starboard. I do have 2 bags of southdown sitting in the garage.