RicksReefs
New member
ahhh... 
A question for long time (5+ years) DSB keepers
- Thread starter garygb
- Start date
theborgtank
New member
a clean up crew can export nutrients. they sift through the sand and release detritus and feces into the water column. in a well thought out system this suspended organic matter will be processed by other means (protien skimmer, settling chamber, algal growth and removal, etc etc)
this situation is the same as siphoning out part of the DSB except that you remove the detritus immediately with the siphon.
also, i would like to mention that a benefit of DSB's is that they provide food to corals. many corals eat detritus and simply siphoning it out would be removing this food. a seperate DSB, like the 5g bucket Calfo mentions, plumbed upstream of a clean high flow bb display with a settling chamber plumbed downstream could remove this detritus after it is available to corals.
just a thought
this situation is the same as siphoning out part of the DSB except that you remove the detritus immediately with the siphon.
also, i would like to mention that a benefit of DSB's is that they provide food to corals. many corals eat detritus and simply siphoning it out would be removing this food. a seperate DSB, like the 5g bucket Calfo mentions, plumbed upstream of a clean high flow bb display with a settling chamber plumbed downstream could remove this detritus after it is available to corals.
just a thought
K' Family Reef
New member
i second your idea!
we currently have a dsb in both dt and fuge
and (think atleast) that we have had good luck w/ it thus far...
but in our next system
the dt will only have few inches sand and the dsb will be kept elsewhere (fuge or rdsb)... like the option of being able to take it offline w/o (entirely) disturbing the main dt (offline to either remove/replace/ or maintanance).
here is a link by dr shimek re dsb
http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2003-06/rs/feature/index.php
something that learned recently
(which cannot seem to produce the link for - one of the reefing phd's around here published an article about it)... is that metals can build up over time (metals from salt etc) in the dsb - eventually releasing them back into the system etc etc (iow some problems w/ metals in the sandbed) which was one reason why decided to keep dsb out of the main display and use it remotely instead... (but also a reason why not good idea to stir the the sandbed either)...
regards
OCEAN SIZE
BACK REEFIN'
Thanks for seconding (!) - always nice to get a double check from another reefkeeper. Lets me know I'm not off-base, which I really want to ensure in my new build.
I like the idea of remote sandbeds, RDSB-style, fuge, etc... because then they can be taken offline safely. I'd imagine the sand can be drained, dried, washed heavily, dried, rinsed however number of times to be "fresh" again - no life, toxic gases/metals, etc, be as clean as possible, and reused.
I'm planning oolitic sand for the RDSB and my display shallow sand bed both. I have a lot of sand in my systems now, teeming with life. I'll make sure my new filtration is online when I move the top layers over (a layer of aragonite sits on a layer of silica currently), and wash the silica sand completely (probably going to use it in the garden instead of new reef).
The life in my aragonite will find a new home in the new fuge. Hopefully that minimizes toxic leaching when I setup the new system.
Thanks for the link and information Warren
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deep sand beds work great but there are drawbacks with extended time that tend to be are more aesthetic than functional. The 'Nitrate crash' IMHO seems unlikely. I have kept highly fed tanks and lightly fed tanks, and have never encountered this phenomenon over many years.
The main drawback is the collection of 'live rock critter gunk' and the fixation and slow release of low solubility phosphates. Of these two drawbacks the former gray material results from the boring behavior of the tiny worms and other denizens of the live rock. This stuff just collects in the dead spaces and is quite difficult to remove-its dense enough to not get easily churned up by typical day to day water currents and it is grey in color.
As to the second point, certain phosphates (ie complexed with iron and other metals) are quite insoluble. The 'fixation' and slow release of phosphate bound material in the tank means that a trace of phosphate may s l o w l y dissolve and climb in concentration (very very slowly) in the closed tank system. This may result in higher Ca++ and CO3 levels required to sustain rapid skeletal deposition in SPS and LPS corals, (but I think that the effect is insignificant relative to the effects of dissolved organic material).
The main drawback is the collection of 'live rock critter gunk' and the fixation and slow release of low solubility phosphates. Of these two drawbacks the former gray material results from the boring behavior of the tiny worms and other denizens of the live rock. This stuff just collects in the dead spaces and is quite difficult to remove-its dense enough to not get easily churned up by typical day to day water currents and it is grey in color.
As to the second point, certain phosphates (ie complexed with iron and other metals) are quite insoluble. The 'fixation' and slow release of phosphate bound material in the tank means that a trace of phosphate may s l o w l y dissolve and climb in concentration (very very slowly) in the closed tank system. This may result in higher Ca++ and CO3 levels required to sustain rapid skeletal deposition in SPS and LPS corals, (but I think that the effect is insignificant relative to the effects of dissolved organic material).
