Sloped Bare Bottom?

[Peace]

Hello all... I'm sure someone has thought of this before... just couldnt find it on SD... thought I'd get your comments on why this isnt done more often (if it is, I dont hear about it much)...

With most people keeping bb tanks to help with cleaning up the poop/leftover food, I started thinking whether this could be done easier by basically moving all the gunk to one side of the tank (for easy siphoning)... basically, one could use a flat piece of plastic/glass/wood (ill call it a 'plate') that was slightly longer than the size of the tanks length (same width, mind you)... place it in the tank in such a way that you create a gentle slope (20-40 degrees) from one end of the tank to the other... create a gentle flow from the higher end to the lower end of the plate... this could be always on or run a little before cleaning time... what I'm thinking is this should push most of the gunk in the tank to the lower end of the slope for easy cleaning... you could get fancy with the plate and most of the gunk will be pushed into one corner instead of one side of the tank...

With a siphon permanently placed above this spot, cleaning up should be a snap, shouldnt it?

Two disadvantages i see is 1) slightly reduced livable area for the fish (shouldnt be significant) and 2) gunk that could get trapped between the plates and the walls of the tank (which could be addressed if you wanted to get fancy)...

Maybe there is something already on the market to help with this that you can point me to... Has anyone seen/thought of/used such a setup? Comments? Thoughts? Thanks.

-Shazli

[GoingDiscus]

On my tanks the way the water currents are most everything kinda ends up in a corner and is pretty easy to get out , I dont have a permanent type siphon in there tho

[Remora]

Instead of a plate, why not use a small powerhead? Kinda like how if you stir a bucket of tank water, the gunk all collects in the middle, right? Position the powerhead to where the current will make it all collect in one area, and boom. :)

[DiscusOnly]

It's an idea but you will be creating more things to clean. Remember, when you vac the tank, it's more than that. It's alway a wipe down. Now you have to wipe down more hidden area create by additional things you add to the tank.

Keeping BB clean takes time but it's just a routine. 5 mins max to vac and wipe down a tank.

[dbfzurowski]

hey,
all depends on your filter. Mine, pulls water from one corner about 5-6" of bottom and goes back on other side creating a loop effect. Since its bb the motion of water takes most if not all the gunk from everywhere to that one corner which is sucked up. I only vac my planted driftwood or if i get lazy i flip it wait about an hour and no vac needed just clean my filter.

[waters10]

I think the problem is the same problem with those 3d backgrounds. Stuff gets trapped behind and it becomes a pain to clean those areas.


On my tanks the way the water currents are most everything kinda ends up in a corner and is pretty easy to get out , I dont have a permanent type siphon in there tho
Agreed. You could achieve similar results by getting creative with the water flow in the tank.

[Peace]

On my tanks the way the water currents are most everything kinda ends up in a corner and is pretty easy to get out , I dont have a permanent type siphon in there tho

What arrangement/combination of gadgets do you use to create the current? Would a slow powerhead at the bottom of one side of the tank push all the gunk to the other side? Or is it not as simple as that?

-Shazli

[Peace]

It's an idea but you will be creating more things to clean. Remember, when you vac the tank, it's more than that. It's alway a wipe down. Now you have to wipe down more hidden area create by additional things you add to the tank.

Keeping BB clean takes time but it's just a routine. 5 mins max to vac and wipe down a tank.

What exactly do you mean by a wipedown? wiping the inside of the tank with a cloth??

-Shazli

[DiscusOnly]

What exactly do you mean by a wipedown? wiping the inside of the tank with a cloth??

-Shazli

wipe the inside of the tank to get all the slime off slicone and glass.

[Peace]

wipe the inside of the tank to get all the slime off slicone and glass.

Never seen/done that before... interesting... wonder if I could use a squeegee...

[DiscusOnly]

Never seen/done that before... interesting... wonder if I could use a squeegee...

Look at the videos in this post by Francis a while back.

http://forum.simplydiscus.com/showthread.php?t=71883&highlight=video

[waters10]

Never seen/done that before... interesting... wonder if I could use a squeegee...
You can use those mag floaters, or an algae scrubber. You can also use bristlenose plecos for that.

[Peace]

Look at the videos in this post by Francis a while back.

http://forum.simplydiscus.com/showthread.php?t=71883&highlight=video

Haha! that guy was all business... bruised a few discus in the process... but alls good in the end I guess... they've get a nice clean home...

Watching the video made me wonder how much stress the discus go under with all the vigorous scrubbing and very low water levels...

Thanks for sharing...

[DiscusOnly]

Never seen/done that before... interesting... wonder if I could use a squeegee...

You can use a paper towl. I use a big sheet of this and cut it up.

http://www.marinedepot.com/AquaticLife_Media_Bonded_Blue_Pad_26x30_Filter_Pad _Mechanical_Filter_Media-AquaticLife-AK01180-FIFMMEPM-vi.html

[tdiscusman]

Hello all... I'm sure someone has thought of this before... just couldnt find it on SD... thought I'd get your comments on why this isnt done more often (if it is, I dont hear about it much)...

With most people keeping bb tanks to help with cleaning up the poop/leftover food, I started thinking whether this could be done easier by basically moving all the gunk to one side of the tank (for easy siphoning)... basically, one could use a flat piece of plastic/glass/wood (ill call it a 'plate') that was slightly longer than the size of the tanks length (same width, mind you)... place it in the tank in such a way that you create a gentle slope (20-40 degrees) from one end of the tank to the other... create a gentle flow from the higher end to the lower end of the plate... this could be always on or run a little before cleaning time... what I'm thinking is this should push most of the gunk in the tank to the lower end of the slope for easy cleaning... you could get fancy with the plate and most of the gunk will be pushed into one corner instead of one side of the tank...

With a siphon permanently placed above this spot, cleaning up should be a snap, shouldnt it?

Two disadvantages i see is 1) slightly reduced livable area for the fish (shouldnt be significant) and 2) gunk that could get trapped between the plates and the walls of the tank (which could be addressed if you wanted to get fancy)...

Maybe there is something already on the market to help with this that you can point me to... Has anyone seen/thought of/used such a setup? Comments? Thoughts? Thanks.

-Shazli

I've thought about this before, but beside issues others has mentioned, with the slope, food you feed would also congregate to the same spot and the aggressive discus would guard this area and deprive other from getting the food. I preferred the power head method myself, turn power head off when feeding once done turn on the power head and left over food and poops would be push to one side/spot for easy pick up, you'll just have to experiment with the power head arrangements.

Tony

[scottishbloke]

In my 90g BB with planted driftwood, I wait until all the food is gone and use a low placed Koralia 1 powerhead to gently blow all the poo off the bottom...the tiny bits go into the Eheim canisters, which have prefilters that I clean regularly, while the big stuff collects in a quiet corner and is easily siphoned out. My albino bristlenose plecos and otto cats also do a great job of scrubbing the glass, plants and driftwood clean of debris, and I have 2 bamboo shrimp that "fan filter" the water and help brush any stubborn bits off the driftwood to boot. I also use a surface skimmer with a small powerhead to prevent heavy beefheart feeding from creating a nasty film on the water's surface, works like a dream :)

I agree that if you slope the bottom, the bullies will find it easy to see off the other fish when they all try to eat at one end of the tank bottom, and cleaning under the slope might be a pain. Like others have said, using powerheads etc to direct water flow is a good idea IMHO.

My $0.02,

Colin

[Peace]

In my 90g BB with planted driftwood, I wait until all the food is gone and use a low placed Koralia 1 powerhead to gently blow all the poo off the bottom...the tiny bits go into the Eheim canisters, which have prefilters that I clean regularly, while the big stuff collects in a quiet corner and is easily siphoned out. My albino bristlenose plecos and otto cats also do a great job of scrubbing the glass, plants and driftwood clean of debris, and I have 2 bamboo shrimp that "fan filter" the water and help brush any stubborn bits off the driftwood to boot. I also use a surface skimmer with a small powerhead to prevent heavy beefheart feeding from creating a nasty film on the water's surface, works like a dream :)

I agree that if you slope the bottom, the bullies will find it easy to see off the other fish when they all try to eat at one end of the tank bottom, and cleaning under the slope might be a pain. Like others have said, using powerheads etc to direct water flow is a good idea IMHO.

My $0.02,

Colin

Nice system you've got setup there, Colin ;)

[roundfishross]

all marineland's new commercial units have bare sloped bottoms and led lighting:D

[Jhhnn]

I definitely don't wipe down the tanks' interiors everyday. I do it when I start to see an objectionable covering of algae. I do siphon the poop and change half or more of the water daily.

I position the discharge from my canister filters flowing straight down in a back corner of my BB tanks, with the sponge prefilter on the intake up high at the other corner. When I get it just right, all the detritus accumulates more or less in a heap under the intake, making removal easy. I squeeze out the prefilters in tapwater once or twice a week, squeeze out the sponge filters in tank water much less frequently, try not to mess with the canisters because I never find anything worth cleaning in them, due to the prefilters..

[GoingDiscus]

What arrangement/combination of gadgets do you use to create the current? Would a slow powerhead at the bottom of one side of the tank push all the gunk to the other side? Or is it not as simple as that?

-Shazli

I just have a HOB on one end of my 55 gallon and 2 sponge filters on the same end, every thing pretty much ends up on the opposite end of the filters and its easy cleaning, for wiping down the inside I have a couple mag floats that I use