Bare bottom tanks

  • We are currently upgrading MFK. thanks! -neo
hillbilly;774692; said:
If you want the look of substrate but the benefits of bare bottom, why not do both? That guy's nuts you say! No, not at all. Get yourself some clear acrylic casting resin from a craft shop. Clean out the bottom of your tank. Then pour a thin coat of acrylic on the bottom. Add your substrate, then pour another layer of acrylic heavy enough to embed the substrate in solid acrylic. Let cure. You now have the best of both. People have been doing this in reef tanks for several years now. I don't really understand why the freshwater crowd hasn't followed. Am I the only one? :D
Click to expand...

Got any pics?
 
Sounds like an OK idea, but too much of a pain in the ass to me.. Id rather go with sand, or with just decorations and no substrate. But i bet it works good for some people, just not my style...
 
Sounds like an okay idea if you're not like me who has a tendency to make dramatic changes to the aquariums...

I recently switched from brown gravel to playsand, and am contemplating switching to black sand.

I'm confused why reefers would do that though??? The sand in a reef tank has a lot of ecological importance to the system. I wouldn't do it in a reef tank anyways...
 
Not really anything you can see in a photo. Looks like plain old sand in there. The acrylic is clear, so when the tank is filled, it "disappears". Yeah, you wouldn't want to tear a tank down to do it, but if you're setting one up, it's only takes 30 mins. or so to do. I learned that trick from reefers who keep stony corals. They shoot for a extremely low nitrate environment. Having no or an encased substrate prevents crap and food bits from becoming trapped in the sand, raising the nitrate level.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
MonsterFishKeepers.com
Top Bottom