Only Fish tank w/o sand

[ady]

I heard from my friend who keeps marine fish, saying that if there is no sand/ corals in the tank, the fish would not survive for long...

Cuz I intend to keep fish w/o any sand, live rocks etc...

Really bare tank....

Is this true...?

[iantoh]

hi bro ady,

this certainly isnt true. it depends on how the aquarium is set up. there are lots of barebottom (BB) tanks around, check out bro Loster's tank http://www.sgreefclub.com/forum/index.php?...topic=40931&hl= for a good BB tank example.

for a barebottom tank to succeed though, there must be very good flow within the aquarium insofar as to ensure that little fish wastes and detritus settles on the tank bottom to decay, and instead, is mixed around, and thereafter, these wastes and dissolved organics (that will float due to salinity) will flow over the overflow into the sump to be skimmed out by the skimmer. BB tanks also usually incorporate a really good skimmer. if the tank is FOWLR, then fulfilling these two conditions (plus maintaining general water conditions, and temperature), should allow one to successfully run a BB fish tank.

the liverocks and sandbed in a marine tank are generally used to facilitate denitrification, where nitrates are processed into nitrogen and oxygen gas to leave the system, thereby preventing an accumulation of nutrients and toxins within the tank. BB tanks usually incorporate live rocks as well, without the sandbed, but i believe that if you do not wish to have liverocks in your tank, with good and dynamic water flow that is spread out throughout the tank, and have a good overturn rate of water going to the sump to a good skimmer, you should be able to keep an FOWLR without the rocks or sand. this said, you will still need to do fortnightly or monthly water changes according to your tank's needs and bioload.

do you keep alot of fish? some fish are more sensitive than others to nitrates and other nutrients which are toxic at high levels, so how many fish, along with what kind of fish, are factors that will affect how sustainable your system is.

liverocks are also used to provide a natural habitat and lots of hiding areas or separate territories for fishes within an aquarium. if you do not have any rock structures within the tank, your fish will constantly be in each others' faces, and this will encourage greater incidences of hostility between the fishes, often amounting to fighting, especially with conspecific fishes, that is, fish of the same species, like between tangs.

cheers,

ian

[madmac]

you gotta check out this link : Starboard Reef, look at hdtvguy's post, 1 year and going strong...

[cdckjn]

nice tank. Personally I feel that since we want to keep a marine fish tank we should do it properly - this is - at least try to recreate an environoment as close to the real natural one as possible - which means sand, live rocks, some corals etc and of course fishes.

[Qxnviolet]

I still feel at least you should have some LRs in there, makes it much nicer...anyway, whats stopping you from considering adding LRs?