Phishies Inn

So many threads about my 10 gallon lol! Anyway I'm trying to decide whether to go BB on my 10 gallon tank, or to have a shallow, 1 inch of some kind of substrate - probably crushed coral?

The only thing stopping me from going BB, is what to do about cleaner crews? Don't a lot of snails like digging? What species can I get that would do fine without a substrate? I don't need a huge crew obviously.

The reason why I want to go BB is because to be honest, I hate sand lol! As much as I love my 55 freshwater, the sand is always blowing around when I'm working with the plants or cleaning the tank. I wish I had just used my flourite gravel and never bothered with sand, but my loaches love it.

Anyway, is there a substrate that won't blow around so easily in the current? Is crushed coral heavy enough? Or should I just not bother and go with BB :P

Amanda

A lot of the beneficial bacteria can be found in the substrate, so there's a good reason to have some. Gravel could be used instead of sand.
Mystery snails don't really care about substrate, as they are usually on the sides of the tank.

Shawnie

depends on what your stocking plan is..most bb that I see are either breeding tanks or fry grow out tanks...I dont think a clean up crew would do in a bb as it would be too open and not alot of natural habitat(as close as we can get in the fish world) which would stress them

Phishies Inn

Well the only thing stopping me is the current. Saltwater tanks need more movement so I want to have a powerhead or two along with the output of the skimmer...but in my experience with freshwater at least, a lot of current will blow sand around if positioned towards the bottom. I just need a substrate that snails can dig around in that won't blow around too easily...like I said, crushed coral seems to be a good bet? This is going to be soft coral tank with just a few mushrooms and polyps, nothing too fancy.

Shawnie

ooooooops im sorry I didnt realize it was SW..my applogies ignore my info as im a noob in sw

Phishies Inn

Haha oops lol! That's why it's in the saltwater forum

Shawnie

it actually comes up on my end in the "subtrate" forum...didnt see all the sw small lettering before that LOL

Phishies Inn

Ah I see. Strange

Phishies Inn

Hmm I just had a vision in my head, not sure if it would work? But what if I got another pound or two of live rock, crushed it up to little chunks, and scattered it around the BB tank (or just buy some rubble if my LFS has some)...and then put just a little sand to fill up the "cracks" between the rocks? Or would that not be worth it either? So my live rock set up would be kind of sloping down (at least, from the front view) until it's just a few pieces of rubble.

lol so many choices. I've also been reading up on argonite type substrates...would they work better than crushed coral? I seem to read mixed reviews about it. Some love it, some say it's a pain.

Edit: Well, from what I've read, crushed coral is out! So now I'm debating between going BB or having a 1 inch or so bed of medium grade sand...

What about Caribsea Seaflor Special Grade Reef sand? It has 1.25-1.95mm sized grains.

au01st

Go with "reef substrate". It has shells, crushed coral, etc. The sand will blow around a bit at first, but it will eventually develop a layer of "algae", not a bad thing, that will keep it in place. For the first 2 months with my tank, sand blew everywhere leaving bare bottom patches up front that looked terrible. Now, it barely moves, and looks great, if only a little dirty. I need to add more nassarius snails for that.

There are plenty of show tanks that are bare bottom. Just some advice, if you do decide that, paint the bottom black so you can't see through. It will eventually be covered in algae, but at first, it will look bad if not painted.

The only time I can think that you would have too much flow for sand is if you were doing an all SPS tank using a large surge device or something. Otherwise, 20X turn-over flow per hour shouldn't be blowing your sand around. A Hydor Koralia Nano or a Maxi-Jet 900 should do great! If you are using a filter or some other device producing flow, you could go down to the Maxi-Jet 600 and be fine.

agsansoo

I say go barebottom ! I do. LOL (the tank ..) Sand is like having a septic tank in your aquarium.