Changing my 180 to bare bottom!

  • We are currently upgrading MFK. thanks! -neo
Slim2634

Slim2634

Plecostomus
MFK Member
May 8, 2006
1,504
80
51
34
Central Ohio
I have never done a bare bottom fish tank before. I switched my turtle tank to bare bottom and absolutely loved it. I'm not going to lie, I have been neglecting the gravel vacuuming in my 180 because its such a pain in the butt. After much thought, I went ahead and started removing all of the gravel. My main reason is because I now have four oscars (rescued two last night from a guy who said he was going to let the raccoons eat them!), and they are notorious dirty.

I started to remove the gravel and it clouded my tank so bad I couldn't see anymore. The more it went on the worse I felt. I obviously let this slip away from me but not anymore! I'll be able to do quick water changed and maybe siphon some things off the bottom! I might even get some use out of the powerheads I have had but never used. That should make bottom debris almost non existent. Anyway, just sharing my big change in my 180. I changed half the water and am now waiting on the filter to clear everything up to remove the rest. So far I am liking what I see but its still pretty murky. I'm just going to leave the large pieces of driftwood in there for now, maybe add a nice rock or two if needed. Once I get everything cleared up I will post pics!
 
You really should'nt have removed all your substrate at once. By doing this you removed large amounts of your benificial bacteria.You should be testing your water now as it may go into a mini cycle.
 
hope you have alot of water current. With 4 oscars your gonna have O-poop for substrate.
 
crisper said:
You really should'nt have removed all your substrate at once. By doing this you removed large amounts of your benificial bacteria.You should be testing your water now as it may go into a mini cycle.
Click to expand...

I thought that most of the bacteria was in the filter? I'll test my water and do frequent water changes if it does go into a mini cycle. The tank will have a lot of current once I get it all situated with a powerhead in both the back corners.
 
Most of bacteria is in the filter, however a large amount lives in substrate ecspecially gravel. I had a big ammonia spike in one of my tanks when i switched from gravel to sand.
 
So look at it this way inthe last couple days you have basically doubled your bioload while removed a good amount of your beneficial bacteria. Better keep a close eye on the ammonia levels.
 
I'd wager that just a few % of the bacteria reside in the substrate and only on the very surface anyways so don't worry about it. The beneficial bacteria need water flow and oxygen. Any ammonia spike is likely due to all the waste being stirred up. Do a decent water change after the removal and you'll be fine.

Remember bacteria grow exponentially, so even if 50% of your bacteria were growing on your substrate it would only take one generation for the bacteria in the filter to re-grow to make up for the slack(and some bacteria have generation times of 20 minutes...).
 
A bare bottom tank just feels way to sterile and unnatural to me. If I went this route (and I have considered it) I would buy a few pieces of large slate tiles and use these for the bottom. I don't know if I would try to seal the water (and waste) out of being able to get under the slate or just raise the slate a half inch off the bottom and plumb a filter intake to suck all the waste from under the slate.

Just a thought.
 
I would do something like that but I don't mind the bare bottom look. I did a 40% water change after stirring everything up and am going to do another 50-70% today after my friend puts in some new plumbing beside the tank to get rid of the little pieces of gravel left behind and to clean out debris. I don't want my filter to have to clean all of it because its quite a bit.
 
If it works for you than fine.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
MonsterFishKeepers.com
Top Bottom