Has anyone tried this?
I have always loved bare bottom tanks, but recently I have been messing with some percolating through.
I recently got some new biomedia as my ceramics were cheap and wearing out. So i got myself a load of marine pure spheres and marine pure gems and packed out my FX.
I was then thinking what to do with the old cheap ceramic noodles, so while the new media was establishing, I dropped the old ceramics into the tank so I didn't get a crash, and to be fair it worked beautifully!
Now, I have grown a love for the partial bare bottom, I think it actually looks really good!
So i have some questions:
1) will this still work as bio media? (I know the answer is yes but it's nice for clarification)
2) as the marine pure spheres aren't under pressure and only have free flowing water, a i correct in thinking this will be slow enough for anaerobic bacteria for nitrate removal - Reason I ask is ever since I did this, after about 6-8 weeks my nitrate went to zero and haven't moved, no water changed, no filter maintenance.
3) are these any downsides to doing this? I can't think of any? I have no detritus, it's super easy for pleco and cory to clear, manual clean is a 2 second stir up with hand.
Lastly, all my fish seem to love it! My Festea and Polleni are big time into digging about. The EBJD are to small to dig and my Oscar is too daft (it's an Oscar) he just floats about being friend with everyone, flowerhorn doesn't dig but it likes to carry stuff about.
It seems this has massively increased the activity in my tank and a huge reduction in aggression, there doesn't seem to be territories any more, all fish are at the front of the tank and occupying the whole water column rather than just sticking to their bit.......
I have been doing this 20+ years, I kinda feel pissed I didn't do this sooner!
Any thoughts? Pros, cons, suggestions?
Thanks in advance.
I have always loved bare bottom tanks, but recently I have been messing with some percolating through.
I recently got some new biomedia as my ceramics were cheap and wearing out. So i got myself a load of marine pure spheres and marine pure gems and packed out my FX.
I was then thinking what to do with the old cheap ceramic noodles, so while the new media was establishing, I dropped the old ceramics into the tank so I didn't get a crash, and to be fair it worked beautifully!
Now, I have grown a love for the partial bare bottom, I think it actually looks really good!
So i have some questions:
1) will this still work as bio media? (I know the answer is yes but it's nice for clarification)
2) as the marine pure spheres aren't under pressure and only have free flowing water, a i correct in thinking this will be slow enough for anaerobic bacteria for nitrate removal - Reason I ask is ever since I did this, after about 6-8 weeks my nitrate went to zero and haven't moved, no water changed, no filter maintenance.
3) are these any downsides to doing this? I can't think of any? I have no detritus, it's super easy for pleco and cory to clear, manual clean is a 2 second stir up with hand.
Lastly, all my fish seem to love it! My Festea and Polleni are big time into digging about. The EBJD are to small to dig and my Oscar is too daft (it's an Oscar) he just floats about being friend with everyone, flowerhorn doesn't dig but it likes to carry stuff about.
It seems this has massively increased the activity in my tank and a huge reduction in aggression, there doesn't seem to be territories any more, all fish are at the front of the tank and occupying the whole water column rather than just sticking to their bit.......
I have been doing this 20+ years, I kinda feel pissed I didn't do this sooner!
Any thoughts? Pros, cons, suggestions?
Thanks in advance.
