added remote dsb how long til...?

[J_Geisinger000]

Ive been battling with a nitrate problem for about 2 months now in my 90 gallon bb tank
they are at 10ppm then every week when I do my water change they make drop to 5ppm but the next day there right back up to 10ppm

Ive searched everywhere for the problem

so I decided to add a remote dsb or a dsb in a bucket

I set it up on sunday
it has 40lbs argonite reef sand
and about 250gph of flow across it

my question is how long will it take to see a difference in nitrates?
its been running now for4 days
I tested tonight and my trates were at the usual 10 ppm

any help would be greatly appreciated
im so tired of dealing with this problem I just want to be able to move on

 

[LFS_worker]

It usually takes about a month to fully seed the DSB then recomended to change it yearly

Brian

 

[daytonians]

Yeah, I would say at least a month. My refugium took about 4 months to really get up to snuff.

 

[Jeremy B.]

There should be no need to change out a DSB as long as it is maintained properly. A lot of the issues that people were having with buildup of detritus and waste in their DSB's is because they were not kept inoculated with life properly. If you reseed a bed every 9-12 months with a detrivore kit, and you do not house any animals in the system that feed on this microfauna / macrofauna that inhabit the sandbed then you should be just fine for years to come.

Now this is not to say that DSB's are the only way to go, as they are not for everyone and every style of setup. However if you do take care of the sandbed properly they can be extremely beneficial.

Now onto your situation, a lot of people believe that you need quite a bit of surface area for a DSB to work properly. The smallest setup I have had that has actually had a functioning DSB has been about 45 gallons. I had one in a 10gal nano a long time ago that I didn't really think worked. That's not to say your setup is not going to work though. Keep us updated on how it turns out! HTH

 

[BeanAnimal]

you should not have to seed the DSB in the bucket. There is no light and should be very little detritus.... There is no predation of the fauna... most of what is going on is bacterial. This is a remote DSB and therefore not subject to the problems of a full blown DSB in a tank.

Bean

 

[Snarkys]

I have two remote 30L's with a 6" sand bed and i seeded them with a few cups of sand from my show tank. It took about 4 months before it really got going.

On a side note i have to say it is working really well . It is on a fish only system that i feed pellet twice daily. I don't have a skimmer on that system and i next to never do water changes. There are two tanks hooked up to this . The glass one i had to clean the glass once and the acrylic one i have never even once cleaned the viewing panes. The nitrates are undetectable .

i started to get a few bubbles in it around month one and two but this is what it looks like on month five.

Far as changing it out. It is certainly debatable if you need to or not but i plan one changing one of them on year 3 and one on year four. i figure it is only about $20 worth of home depot silica sand and i can suck it out with s shop vac in 10 minutes. piece of mind is the only real reason...

 

[awestruck]

Hi. I have sand beds in my 3 tanks (58, 29, and 10). In the 10g. it is more for looks than anything. However, I do have some questions.

1. I can only get my nitrates down to about 20 and someone named Sk8r was kind enough to suggest adding at least 1 more inch of sand (both the 58 and the 29 have 2-1/2" to 3" of sand). I guess I didn't understand that the sand needed to be really deep to filter as it should. Also, he said to add the sand only a little bit at a time. Does the sand need to be live?

2. What is a detrivore kit?

3. What animals are you referring to, to not get because they will eat the micro/macro fauna? I have nass. snails in both the 58 and 29, and also in the 58 is a sand sifting star (which I was told is "a good thing". I really, really, hope I haven't goofed this up because like everyone else, I am really trying to reef correctly.

Someone please take time to respond/advise. Your thoughts/ideas/expertise are needed and certainly welcome!

 

[daytonians]

Most nassarius snails a scavengers, and only eat dead stuff, so they shouldn't cause a problem.

Sand sifting stars are carnivores and will eat all the worms, pods, snails, crustations, etc. that they can get a hold of. Personally I would take it out.

While sand sifter do stir up the top of the sand bed, you need the worms and pods to help stir the lower levels. Say, below an inch or so. I have worms that burrow about 3" down.