Man! This thread can move at the speed of light! Great debates on all facets of system set up and maintenance here! :thumbsup:
Not to mention, some real nuggets that could be nominated for greatest truths in reef keeping status ... just a couple:
"I have learned that 'stuff' in this hobby does NOT travel at the speed of light, unless its an algae bloom or a pregnant red bug." - nineball
"Be weary of people who claim to be completely successful in this hobby, and definitely don't believe their golf scores ... " - mr.wilson
In support of your water change determination and desire for stability. Many have used metering punps like the Litermeter set on a controller to manage SW in and out for constant/consistent WCs even on "larger" systems. But on your scale, you may need to investigate multiple commercial dosing pumps on a controller to handle your volume and still give you room to tweek the delivery rates with a high degree of accuracy.
Here's a link to an excellent line of commercial dosing pumps. I've used many in my line of work and these are high quality and bullet proof equipment.
http://www.walchem.com/products/pumps/Pump_overview.htm
Just a spectator here - I wish you all the best and a successful masterpiece in the future.
Of course my ulterior motives for the well wishes are beautiful SPS frags and a tank tour some day. Cheers and good luck.
It's a trade secret, don't tell anyone
Yes, add it to both end panels. If the water overflows aggressively, add course sand to the top inch to avoid and storms, but it shouldn't be an issue if the box is designed correctly.
The sand never needs to be changed out. In the old days we changed it annually because calcareous media like coral sand is a silicate and phosphate sink, constantly binding and releasing nutrients back into your tank. With modern phosphate media filters and other devices that is no longer a concern.
It's a bacterial and to a lesser extent, chemical process taking place in the DSB. This is an area where hobbyists can run wild with experiments using carbon sources, sulphur beads, sand mixes and yes magic mud. Studies have shown that nitrifying and denitrifying bacteria populate detritus on the sand forming a slime coat or biofilm, rather than simply growing on the sand grain itself. This is an area that may give magic mud credit. The slight turbulence of an overflow box would turn the already partially buoyant magic mud into a fluidized bed. This would give you a much larger barrier layer between the media (in our case mud) and the nutrient rich water.
You can also create a passive flow through the sand or mud by installing a heat source below the overflow box. As the heat rises up through the box it takes with it a very gentle current of water. This would be just enough to expose more water to the media without turning the bed into an aerobic zone. Denitrifying bacteria colonizes aerobic (oxygen-rich) as well as anaerobic (oxygen-poor) zones. The DSB should offer a variety of conditions for different species of denitrifying bacteria.
If you are following any of the carbon dosing threads, I'm sure you have read this one. http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?p=16870882#post16870882 In the good old days we dosed lactose, ethanol (vodka), or a glucose solution daily in a slow flow media reactor. These days the common practice is to dump much higher doses directly into the system. Feeding a carbon source in smaller, controlled doses, directly to the bacterial bed in a DSB rather makes more sense to me still. The argument for shotgun dosing the whole tank is that microbes living on coral tissue consume nutrients (phosphate & nitrate) at the source on a collectively high level.
It would be easy to isolate which (DSB or microbes on coral tissue) is more active with denitrifiers (nitrate reducing bacteria) by running a few test tanks, but no one has expressed an interest in the matter. Maybe you can dedicate a row of your mars bars and let us know
I'll start working on some more confusing ideas for you to consider. Preferably ones that you can't do much research on to torture you even further
I had dinner last week with Mika Immonen. Can I bring him to play for me
Very funny! Will do
).good luck. I hope to see this come to fruition in the not too distant future
I have been following this thread since the beginning and this last post really hit the spot for me prompting me to speak.
I think you really hit the nail on the head here. I have been in this hobby a long long time (Not sure why,... It will drive a strong man insane at times) and the one thing I have learned from years and years of research is that the most important factor to keeping a successful reef tank is good husbandry.
I have learned that just like anything else in life, the most important thing is repeatedly paying attention to the core essentials the animals you are trying to keep need. There seems to be a new best thing every month in this hobby. I have seen simple systems that have been set up for 15yrs or more and he can't keep up with fragging corals. I have seen seriously high tech systems with every gadget attached that were great BUT I have also seen many unsuccessful systems on both ends of the technology spectrum.
I have read so many articles from "experts in the field" about DSB that WILL surely fail within 6 yrs if they are not replaced and yet that same guy with the 15 yr old DSB still continues to frag corals monthly. By the way, he has never even touched the sand bed.
One thing is for sure. If you want to read a long novel, just start a thread asking which way is better? (almost any basic reef topic will do).
My Conclusion? They all work as long as you follow basic rules that keep your water quality within acceptable parameters. I ended up looking at several tanks in my community and basically copying a tried and tested method that I was comfortable with or just made sense to me.
I was dosing vodka until recently to reduce my nitrates and phosphates. It worked!! but it no longer makes any sense to me. Why should I have to feed my tank alcohol daily? That doesn't really happen in nature( If u don't count a few drunken sailors here and there). So I have decided to try a RDSB and additional live rock to see if that will naturally take care of that issue.
Another example of what I have read that actually makes sense is that you should never move a deep sand bed because that will cause a crash. That actually makes sense to me. The anaerobic bacteria would all die if the layers became suddenly mixed, right?? I talked to a guy in canada a few months ago(Cougarman) who downsized from a 600 gal tank to a 300g and he moved a fairly large RDSB(pretty sure it was close to 200g tub with 13in of sand) that was at least 3 yrs old and he said he just dumped it into the new location. Fish and Corals were still healthy last time I checked. So I guess I will conclude my rant by saying, You have taken on a magnificent project. Hopefully you will be able to make a lot of decisions based on common sense and trial and error(there will be a few of these
