6 year old DSB in an SPS tank you wont believe your eyes

trueblackpercula

trueblackpercula

New member
So As some of you may or may not know I have been dealing with all kinds of issues with my Sps.
Pale SPS, STN,RTN,algea from hell and now a red Cyno-bacteria outbreak all over the sand bed. After talking with a few reef keepers and hearing and using there advice my situation only got a little better but still my SPS were either dying or getting paler.

So I have been checking my PO4 as always its been 0.01 to 0.03 and my Nitrates Zero steady ( This is a bad thing)

So I decided to change salt brands and change 6 gallons of water weekly on my 120 gallon tank in hopes it was something as simple as that. well that really did not help the situation as my SPS were still in the same condition or worse.

After speaking with almost everyone on reef central including Biggles and CUNAreefer specifically, it was very apparent there knowledge would lead me into the direction of what I am about to show you.

By the way they did not encourage me to do this or even no anything about it until now. Don't want them to be blamed for my own decision and going against what most say you shouldn't stir the sand bed.

Well I didn't stir it I cleaned it.

the only thing as of today is I testing my water levels my Alk had dropped to 7.3 from 8.5 so I decided to wait until next week to do it again. It is truly amazing what will collect in a sand bed if not taken care of properly. all SPS look better and some have better PE then before the cleaning. This still doesn't mean what I did was the right thing, but time will tell.

I Will try and get some pictures uploaded soon and by the way the water that was being pulled out the tank had Zero smell. I did save a gallon of the water to see what it would test like and look like the next day. But the smell was out of control not to mention the detritus was like a thick sludge that was of a grayish green color. still have a small amount to take a test latter tomorrow I will post the results.

Enjoy the video and I will post how my SPS progress for better or worse.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=geZnqtxdwAw&feature=youtu.be

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=63fVXVneOfk&feature=youtu.be

I would not suggest running DSB without maintenance like this once or twice a year depending on fish and animal load to help remove all the organic buildup that the sand bed can not break down.

Enjoy and looking for everyone's thoughts on what I did.

BY the way here is what my water levels have been at for a long time.

120 gallon tank with I think a 20 gallon sump with another remote sand bed in it. LOL
Main display tank has DSB 3 to 3 1/2 inches deep 6 years old
Nitrate zero
PO4 0.01 TO 0.03
ALK 9.0 TO 8.3 until yesterday LOL
salinity 1.025 to 1.026 and a few times it went higher
calcium 470 to 500
MAG 1470 TO 1500 I was keeping it high to get the algae down
temp now is 78 daily but in the summer its 81 controlled by a chiller

All questions welcomed and enjoy the debate !!!

Michael
 
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do u think ur drop in alk might be cuz ur corals are ''happy'' now and groth spurt...or was the testing time to close together to be a possibility?
 
Hope not too far off topic, your tank is far older than mine. I don't run a dsb display. Just about a 1" crushed coral substrate. I try to make sure to manually stir up the whole thing at least once a month. No denitrification ever occurs in my substrate but that level of detritus buildup in your video is precisely what I'm trying to avoid. Thx for sharing. Look forward to seeing the prolonged results for you
 
bdsage said:
do u think ur drop in alk might be cuz ur corals are ''happy'' now and groth spurt...or was the testing time to close together to be a possibility?
Click to expand...

That's a great question and I did t even think of that, could very well be. I will test the water again tomorrow and let you know. But I did up my dosing to compensate it. I like to keep it in the mid range of 8.5 to 8.3
 
have you upped your fish lode lately, or skimmer not up to par in the last few months? im going on 3years a 210g reef, and found my skimmer and circulation pumps are not up to par anymore. upgrading my skimmer, and pumps again soon. my system is ~400gal . fish load and coral growth is putting me in upgrade statis.
 
Lol, looks amazingly similar to what I did a few months ago. Similar age dsb . Pulled about 15 gallons of green-grey goo out. Certainly improved the algae issues.
 
Damn Michael that came out of nowhere lol. I had a 5" DSB in a 4x2x2 for 3.5 years and did exactly what you're doing every 12 months with no harm and even yearly the filth that came out was rancid smelling soup. When i did along the front glass it only took a couple of weeks to see a full return of the worms and other burrowing critters that are always visible along the glass.
I can't be certain but i'd be inclined to think that your DSB might be lacking in micro fauna diversity to process wastes efficiently and simply at saturation point with unprocessed detritus. Btw thanks for pointing out i haven't even discussed DSB's with you Michael prior to your radical cleanup decision - radical for many but it makes perfect sense to me and might be just what your system needs, a kick in the arse with the cleanup boot. :beer:
When i did it i was careful like you are in the vids to suck up all the billowing filth and go slowly and gently. I would run a sock or filter cloth in the sump for 24 hours and the skimmer (beckett) would produce at least 50% more output over the following 24-48 hours. Your beckett will shred the water of any particulates, they're great for quickly reacting to sudden nutrient increases.
Even my 1" sand bed collects a lot of filth due to the heavy feeding i do and the tank turns milky white when i stir a big section up, the corals slime if i go too far but nothing ever looks the worse for wear the next day.
Remember that you might be releasing phos from the sand that may result in a small algae outbreak so i'd test and run GFO during the cleaning process and turkey baste the corals a few hours after you vacuum to blow any settled detritus off them and into the waiting mouth of the skimmer.

I'm looking forward to seeing the positive results that i'm confident this will bring for you mate. DSB's are great but that all do different things in different tanks with different depths. It's reefers who are willing to experiment and take the bull by the horns with their tanks that see good results Michael, thanks for sharing the cool vids and keep us updated as to what goes on with the tank please mate :thumbsup:
 
Wow, you are one VERY brave reefer. I don't run DSB's currently, but have in the past. I would be very scared that in doing what you do, phosphate or some other organic would precipitate and cause a crash. You do sooo very good at sucking all that nasty out. Props my good sir, props!!!
 
Eu, Yum. I have a 3 inch sand bed in my 28 gallon cube. The sand itself in very fine with a top of courser aragonite. The setup is less than three months running.

My question is, is it possible to vacuum the sand without removing it? Guess I won't be doing it anytime soon, but it would be good to know. :-)
 
What size are the sand bed particles it looks more like crushed coral than sand to me in the video. I switched to sugar fine sand many years ago because of how much stuff gets in larger grain sand.
 
Did you ever consider removing the DSB? Not necessarily BB,even a shallow SB would limit po4 buildup. IMO you would benefit greatly.
 
I'm setting up a new tank with 2-3" sand bed
substrate will be tropic eden reef flakes.
I was also planning to use egg crate on bottom to protect glass.

will egg crate prevent me from maintaining the sand bed properly?
is it even a good idea to use egg crate?
 
Glad it's going good for you now. I run about 3" of sand in my 85g. I will clean small sections of it at a time during water changes. This helps with not loading my water with phosphates & won't wash all of my beneficial bacteria from my sand. Sand & rock can only breakdown so much waste until it starts to leach back out into the water. My low flow areas are always the worst & dirtiest spots.
 
yup… thats a lot of accumulated detritus!! throw that in your garden and you'll probably be able to grow he best weed….uh weeds in town!!! :)
good idea on the clean up…although i would wonder about the areas of the sandbed that you can't really access…
I'm very interested to hear about how the corals respond over the next few months..
 
6 year old DSB in an SPS tank you wont believe your eyes

Well boys n girls, i too have a 6" DSB and there is about 75 Lbs of LR suspended above it BUT, it's not in my DT,(my DT is bare bottom). I have it in a remote standard 150 gal. This is the cryptic zone and part of a multi-tank system. Aside from Detritus from the LR above it and what drifts in with the water, it never gets directly fed and never gets disturbed.
I have the DSB divided into 12 sections. Each labeled with the date to change out each compartment,(one per month), when a 3 year period is reached. However the thing is, after 5 years i did change out 5 compartments BUT, i don't really think i needed to.
A long time ago i bought 1200 Lbs of South Down play sand from HD. This is what i have as my DSB. The flow into the cryptic zone tank is slow and a modified air stone wand helps the water circulation on the other end. I have sponge growth EVERYWHERE and their is no predation of the scuds. The Scuds are all over. The reason why i never have to do anything to the DSB is because i don't have to. All the LIFE in the DSB does it for me. Detritus never accumulates on top. It's always pulled down and eaten by all the critters that call it home. I even nerd out :spin3: and goto the back side of the tank where the black plastic is not covering the DSB and look closely into it with a magnifying glass. You would be amazed at all the little tunnels the worms and other critters made so they can pull in the Detritus and eat it. Honestly, the rest of the DSB has been in place since Jan 08 and i don't see any reason to do anything. Food for thought? :idea:
 
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