DSB in Frag tank Suggestions!?

[poke75]

I was thinking about moving my DSB to my frag tank.

My system has three tanks in series from top to bottom (Display 95g, Frag 20g, Sump/fuge 20g)

If I move it to the frag tank, I will have more room for more sand and surface area, I will also have more room for macro algea in the fuge.

I currently have all (or most) of my frags on egg crate suspeded about half way up anyway.

Any suggestions or concerns you can think of would be appreciated!

Steve

 

[LotR Clown]

Steve,
So where is the DSB located now? I assume the display or the fuge. I don't see it hurting anything if you are ok with the dsb look for the frag tank. Are you trying to increase the removal of nitrates by increasing the surface area of your dsb?

Kevin

 

[poke75]

The DSB is in the sump right now. I think the water flow is too great across it and I think the surface area is too small (about 120 square inches).

Not too worried about the look. Just don't want to stunt the frags for any reason. I would still put them on eggcrate about an inch off the DSB surface.

Better nitrate removal is the sole purpose of this whole excursion.

 

[LotR Clown]

If you are planning to remove the dsb in the sump, then I would set up the frag tank dsb first and let it mature before completely removing the sand in the sump. Other than that I see no problem with you switching the tanks the dsb are in.

Kevin

 

[poke75]

Good idea.

Thanks Kevin,

 

[dugg]

Just add a good quality DSB to the frag tank, and leave the one in the sump too. If the object is nitrate removal, you can never have too much live sand in your system.

 

[pwhitby]

Steve, do a DSB and lay an inch of crushed coral on top in the frag tank. The pods and zooplankton you will get will amaze you, it will help feed the frags. Plus....any frags tha fall, such as zoos will attach to the crushed coral.

Thats what I have in my frag tank.

P.

 

[poke75]

More great suggestions!!

Thanks!!

Any more???

 

[captbunzo]

Excellent suggestions. I love the one of doing a normal DSB with sand, and then adding a thin layer of crushed coral on top. I think I might try that in the refugium in my new sump, when I set it up in a week or two.

Concerning the performance of Natural Nitrate Reduction in your current sump....

It should matter not at all that the flow is fast and that the surface area is small. Yes - a larger surface area is better, but not required. For my 55G tank, I added a RDSB (remote deep sand bed) which seems to have successfully eliminated nitrates from my tank. And I feed pretty heavy and have a crappy DIY skimmer. (I'll build a good one later, once I get the new sump in place )

Take a look at this page to see some example RDSB, some pictures of mine (about the second page), etc.

In short, I set mine up by filling a 5G water cube with sand and plumbing it up so that can be pumped through it using a MJ600 powerhead. In fact, it is IMPORTANT to keep flow sufficient to avoid crud from building up on the surface. Here's a diagram, for good measure.

The sand to be added part is just that I am going to add some more sand eventually.

 

[Travis L. Stevens]

That is awesome Paul (both Paul's really). I've thought about adding a RDSB for some time now, but was detered from using a simple 5g bucket. Now, since that is nearly a completely enclosed system, I just might do that! Thanks again.

 

[pwhitby]

with the additon of a nice piece of polyfilter surrounding the outlet and the inlet going all the way to the bottom.....its a great design for carbon filtration as well.

 

[captbunzo]

Not a bad idea about the carbon. I'll have to consider engineering an inline carbon filter along the lines that you have discribed with some sort of polyfilter to keep crud out (at the inlet) and carbon in (at the outlet). Plumb that inline in between the powerhead and the RDSB and I've got myself a RDSB Canister filter of sorts.

 

[poke75]

For a carbon filter you could use the cartrige filter housings that you can get from Lowe's.

I'm trying on for a reactor.

Is carbon filtering needed always or just when there might be chemical issues?

 

[captbunzo]

Depends who you ask. Most of the experts say that continuous use of carbon will do a lot to improve water quality.

One note - you use the phrase "when there might be chemical issues". I've recently become a little more aware about how much of a stew of chemicals really are involved in the water of our reef tanks. And most of these chemicals cannot be tested for. There is an excellent read on this here.