Bare bottom is horrible, and only works for people who are really good at water management and OCD about cleanliness. Substrate and plants makes water management so much easier.I just want to keep fish only. No plants or anything. Will i encounter a bacteria boom? It is a 60l tank with an eheim 2213 filter.
I really don't believe this, water parameters are nearly always better in tanks with substrate and plants, because they allow you a little "wriggle" room when you are busy etc.. You can design a tank so that any left over organic debris collects in one spot, where it can be easily syphoned from, and faeces are not actually that polluting, but mainly unsightly.Some breeding species like discus rely on water perameters more than anything to spawn and bare bottom allows easy sight of uneaten food, detrius etc which can be easily cleaned. Substrates can allow uneaten food, dead fry etc to go unnoticed thus polluting the environment for all.
dw1305 said:Hi all,
I really don't believe this, water parameters are nearly always better in tanks with substrate and plants, because they allow you a little "wriggle" room when you are busy etc.. You can design a tank so that any left over organic debris collects in one spot, where it can be easily syphoned from, and faeces are not actually that polluting, but mainly unsightly.Some breeding species like discus rely on water perameters more than anything to spawn and bare bottom allows easy sight of uneaten food, detrius etc which can be easily cleaned. Substrates can allow uneaten food, dead fry etc to go unnoticed thus polluting the environment for all.
Even if I didn't have a substrate I'd have plants (floating, attached to sponges, on wood etc). Plants add oxygen and remove ammonia, that is a win-win situation in tank maintenance.
There are plenty of successful breeders who use bare bottomed tanks, Jo Crane from "Rare Aquatics" is one who used to, but she is really OCD about cleanliness, cleaning the whole tank with a new scrim (one use and then discarded) every week, glass every day and doing 50% water changes every day.
More details here, although I see she is now using a sand substrate <http://www.plecoplanet.com/forum/showthread.php?t=9538>
cheers Darrel
I was only suggesting this as logi cat specified bare bottom.dw1305 said:Hi all,
Some breeding species like discus rely on water perameters more than anything to spawn and bare bottom allows easy sight of uneaten food, detrius etc which can be easily cleaned. Substrates can allow uneaten food, dead fry etc to go unnoticed thus polluting the environment for all.I really don't believe this, water parameters are nearly always better in tanks with substrate and plants, because they allow you a little "wriggle" room when you are busy etc.. You can design a tank so that any left over organic debris collects in one spot, where it can be easily syphoned from, and faeces are not actually that polluting, but mainly unsightly.
clearly without anything in the tank, logi cat is looking to make life easier on himself regards catching parent fish/fry, so designing a scape to suit is more hard work.logi-cat said:No plants or anything
Point taken. I now use a small amount of silica sand, even for temporary breeding tanks, but this probably doesn't make any difference to success. I just air dry the sand between uses.However for breeding purposes I tend to use bare bottom tanks. In between breeding when sterilising tanks it is far easier to go with bare bottom, also for tiny fry it is easier to minimise other nasties like hydra than in a planted tank.