kinnda bare bottom

[blaze]

k, i woke up with this on my brain :idea: this morning...(i dream of discus & yes its in color)

I am in total aggreement with the Benefits of BareBottom tanks. but it kinnda looks BLAHHA :-\ ( yeah I know the fish wil look great the fish look great)

I know I could always tape the background tank liner to the outside of tank...or paint the outside of the tankbottom bright blue ect

But what if you :
covered/spread the inside of the tank with sillicone and then cover the surface area with aquarium sand. Then simply take out the excess sand..... leaving you with a thin layer of UNDISTURBABLE sand. Not food/feces/debris could get under the sand, it would be just as easy to Vac/siphon as a BBT.

well what do u think , (i expect a lot of debate :argue:)
hey im a newbie with discus dream2

[daninthesand]

That might work but I bet it would be a mess. I once tried something similar with gravel on the bottom (under) on a Hagen style tank where the bottom is raised off the supporting surface by the side and end pieces. (IE the tank is made so that it does not rest on its bottom glass, but rather on the edges of the sides, front and back.) This leaves about 3/4 inch between the table surface and the bottom glass, allowing for putting gravel surfaces on the underside of the bottom without the risk of an uneven surface for the tank to rest on.

Trouble is I used a urethane product (waterbased) to cover the glass, added the gravel but once it was dried, the bottom looked like a mirror when viewed from the front when full of water, much like it does with the underside not painted at all. It looks great from the top of the tank surface, but I never view the tank that way. It was an experiment that yielded a poor resut. Wasted a lot of time, a bit of money, and the results were lousy.

Just my two cents.

Daniel

PS. I have pictures in case anyone is interested....

Don't do it. The sand will get dirty, algae will form and you won't be able to clean it.

[jeep]

Use Stone Creations from Home Depot. Spray on the outside and it looks like sand on the inside...

[Carol_Roberts]

DaveC is right. You want a smooth bottom. What you are sgesting would be like really coarse sand paper.

Jeep's idea of spaying fake sand-look paint on the exterior of the bottom would be fine. I just set my tanks on plush rugs or fabric wrapped stryofoam.

[daninthesand]

Jeep.

That is a great idea! I might have to try that.

Thanks!

[jeep]

Go with a darker color because the one that looks like real sand will reflect too much yellow back into the tank and the fish lose some color.

The slate color (even though it looks very dark on the cap) will reflect some blue and grey back up and really enhances the fish color...

And Carol is correct. Make sure you paint the exterior and not the interior.