substrateless tank ok?

somefinnfishy

somefinnfishy

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May 12, 2002
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I have one of my 29s I want to pull all the gravel out of.
Reason have a few fancy plecos want to feed better.I use a lot of live black worms and bottom feeder pellets-tabs they all just get lost in the substrate.If I have a glass bottom I could feed them and a few mellow bottom feeders in the same tank without so much compition.
BTW the tank is on a central tank filter system with a nice sump and three other planted 29s so not so woried about the cycle or any amonia spikes.
Good idea or bad?
 
Fine idea, but paint the (outside) bottom of the tank. I am glad to see that you have given good consideration to easily cleaning the tank, but you must remember to provide a whole bunch of material to which biological filtration components may adhere.
 
Got two albino bristle nose and a royal in there (royal 3" brisstles 3")will add to bigger tanks later.
My sump has more than plenty of bio area and the other tanks are jungles of live plants+I will stuff that tank with tons of drift wood mounted to slate also have made some nice slate caves for them to hide.
 
Normally I would say bad idea. But being that you stated your sump has good biological filtration, I guess it would be OK. If you are concerned with the food getting lost in the substrate, try feeding with algae waffers. There big enough that they wont fall btween the gravel.
 
as long as you have good biofiltration, you're good to go. Most of the bacteria are in the filter anyways, where they get good water flow.

As for painting the bottom, I'd say that's optional. Most of the time, the bottom glass will look like a mirror anyways, because of the angle you're looking at it. Only when you're looking at it mostly straight-down will you see through the glass.

another idea to improve feeding w/o removing the gravel would be to get a piece of slate (like they anchor driftwood to) and drop the food on that - the plec will soon figure it out.
Something to try, anyways - and a heck of alot easier than removing the gravel!
 
I was thinking about the feeling of security for the tank's occupants when I said to paint the bottom, and I stand by that. My fish were much, much happier when I gave them gravel in their temporary winter break tank at home...they were less jumpy, more active, and they came to see me when I fed them rather than run away from the big hand.
 
Originally posted by ChilDawg
I was thinking about the feeling of security for the tank's occupants when I said to paint the bottom,
Click to expand...

doh! didn't think of that - good point! Hey, you could just mask off the inside of the stand, and paint it in place...

The reptile food dish sounds like a very nice idea - might blend in a bit better than a slab of slate...
 
only thing that concerns me about this painted tank base is the reflection of light from it, or would it reflect more if it wasnt painted? bottom less tanks unfortunately turn out to look more dirty than tanks with a substrate...but on a centralised system that shouldnt be a problem.
 
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