I have a 10g FOWLR. I currently have a SSB, prolly about 2 inches or so with (I think) 20lb of Tahitian Moon sand. If I were to add another 20 pounds of it - that could prolly allot me a DSB there for allowing for some anaerobic life. Is it worth it in a 10g? Can I even do it now? Would it work? Would my Nassarius snails disturb it?
DSB worth it? Advantages vs. Disadvantages
- Thread starter jipps
- Start date
fantastic4
New member
hard call, in a 10 gallon I would say more live rock would do better. Also, adding a AquaClear fuge with chaeto would produce better results in my opinion.
GobyJohnKenobi
New member
One point to consider about DSB is the oxygen load of the bacteria in the sand.
DSBs allow for much greater populations of bacteria and one of the limiting factors is the amount of O2 that you can supply them with.
In the event of a power failure, a tank with a DSB will theoretically have a much higher demand for oxygen than a SSB tank due to the load from the bacteria. This will deplete the O2 much more quickly and might lead to a greater chance of losing your livestock.
Just a thought.
DSBs allow for much greater populations of bacteria and one of the limiting factors is the amount of O2 that you can supply them with.
In the event of a power failure, a tank with a DSB will theoretically have a much higher demand for oxygen than a SSB tank due to the load from the bacteria. This will deplete the O2 much more quickly and might lead to a greater chance of losing your livestock.
Just a thought.
Agu
Premium Member
Popular opinion, supported by an "expert", is that a DSB isn't effective in a small tank.
Due to too much flow I have as much as 6" of sand in the back corner of a ten gallon skimmerless tank. It's the most trouble free tank I ever had. Cause and effect, I don't know, but another ten gallon with a shallow sandbed, refugium, skimmer, same waterchange schedule, and sump is never as "clean" as the DSB tank.
fwiw,
Due to too much flow I have as much as 6" of sand in the back corner of a ten gallon skimmerless tank. It's the most trouble free tank I ever had. Cause and effect, I don't know, but another ten gallon with a shallow sandbed, refugium, skimmer, same waterchange schedule, and sump is never as "clean" as the DSB tank.
fwiw,
I'm not going to go find a link, but the only scientific study of sandbeds that I have seen (it was run by some guy out of Hawaii) showed that sandbed depth had almost no impact on the biological processing capacity of a tank. The nice thing about that study was it removed all of the other variables that play a bigger impact on your tank's health. It's precisely the unscientific nature of people's experiences that lead to all of the varying and contradicting posts you will see when the topic of sand beds comes up. Every possible type of setup has had both success and failure.
My advice is this: If you specifically need a DSB (i.e. for burrowing fish, pistol shrimp, etc) then do it. Otherwise I would recommend against it in this particular case. Be aware that putting more sand onto an existing sand bed will trap detrius and cause nitrate problems for months. In general, however, if you're setting up a new tank, then just put in whatever kind of sand bed you want. All of the other aspects of your setup and husbandry techniques will play a MUCH bigger role in the health of your tank.
My advice is this: If you specifically need a DSB (i.e. for burrowing fish, pistol shrimp, etc) then do it. Otherwise I would recommend against it in this particular case. Be aware that putting more sand onto an existing sand bed will trap detrius and cause nitrate problems for months. In general, however, if you're setting up a new tank, then just put in whatever kind of sand bed you want. All of the other aspects of your setup and husbandry techniques will play a MUCH bigger role in the health of your tank.
