do any of you keep tanks with no substrate in them? I just removed all mine to help keep it cleaner and wonder if anyone else does this.
no substrate tanks
- Thread starter yemista
- Start date
i have a 20G and a 30G like this.
all my large tanks i keep natural gravel in them.
Gives it a better look. Perfter the no substrate tho. Could keep it cleaner.
But with the gravel my PH and Ammonia seem more stable. Maybe BB.
all my large tanks i keep natural gravel in them.
Gives it a better look. Perfter the no substrate tho. Could keep it cleaner.
But with the gravel my PH and Ammonia seem more stable. Maybe BB.
Even without an under gravel filter, some will. With the under gravel, you get aerobic bacteria, and with just substrate, you can end up with the anaerobic type. I don't recall what it's called, but there's even a way to set up an "anaerobic" filter.
I keep all but one of my tanks without substrate, it's just easier to clean.
If your ammonia does not stay at 0 then you don't have enough biological filter media. Substrate does help with filtration since it provides a large surface area for biological bacteria, therefore if you remove it your filters need to be able to take over the load.
None of my tanks show ammonia or nitrites ever, barebottom or not.
Your pH fluctuations may also be related to the above issue.
If your ammonia does not stay at 0 then you don't have enough biological filter media. Substrate does help with filtration since it provides a large surface area for biological bacteria, therefore if you remove it your filters need to be able to take over the load.
None of my tanks show ammonia or nitrites ever, barebottom or not.
Your pH fluctuations may also be related to the above issue.
barebottom hasn't worked great for me because uneated food just rots, sits on the bottom and gets fuzzy. It works good if you keep a powerhead on the tank though.
some of them look ok (like the dudes up above), some of them just look plain awful and you can tell they are barebottom just out of pure laziness.
yep...Oscar are messy eaters, so i just take the facts and don't add substrate, so that i don't cut down time on my other tanks.