RDSB-5 gal Bucket...

You don't have to seed it and it won't cycle. There aren't any organics to cause an amonia spike. You can move some sand if you want, but it will "liven" up on its own.
 
Yes, reading the thread on remote deep sand beds will answer all of your questions BUT, it is a long thread and will take hours. Worthwhile though.
 
IMO don't bother, it's the wrong bacteria.

in a RDSB we are looking to cultivate anaerobic bacteria and the sand in you tank is full of aerobic bacteria that will not help speed up the RDSB.
 
"in a RDSB we are looking to cultivate anaerobic bacteria and the sand in you tank is full of aerobic bacteria that will not help speed up the RDSB."

Not if it's taken from a DSB

If you really want to seed it, throw a Small Live Rock in the bucket as the bac living in the center of the rock are the same u want for the DSB.
 
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=13894802#post13894802 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by jman77
Not if it's taken from a DSB

i wouldn't advise disturbing a DSB in your tank by taking scoops of sand out, this could lead to some serious problems.
 
You also do not want to add any life into the bucket. Remember you dont want it to turn into a nitrate factory. Just let it seed itself.
 
You wouldn't be disturbing a DSB anymore than a jawfish does... or more than you would if you move a rock that is burried in the sand. You just need a small scope of sand to seed the new sand with. If you think a DSB will "crash" because of this ....well


"You also do not want to add any life into the bucket. Remember you dont want it to turn into a nitrate factory. Just let it seed itself"

lol , now that's funny. Now make sure to UV Filter all the incoming water as well so nothing gets into the DSBB alive, as well as your daily dose of bleach into the bucketts... must keep sterile environment .

;)
 
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I am not saying it will not get in there so you dont have to say that like you are some sort of smug jerk. Life will get in there no matter what but you should not be helping it along. I have been running these for 3 years now, how long have you Jman?? I have run into them being saturated and needing changed out.

BTW when I refer to the buckets as "them" I say that because I own a maintenance company and have several out there. Not just one like most people have but many. So I have played around with these a lot.
 
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=13919048#post13919048 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by jman77
You wouldn't be disturbing a DSB anymore than a jawfish does... or more than you would if you move a rock that is burried in the sand. You just need a small scope of sand to seed the new sand with.

but by bringing oxygenated water to those areas you ( or the jawfish ) would effectively kill the anaerobic bacteria. while this isn't a problem in your tank as it will soon be repopulated when the O2 is depleted again, taking the bacteria and exposing it to an oxygen rich environment in the bottom of a new RDSB would likely just kill all the beneficial bacteria, making the seeding process useless.
 
I started up with Reef Tanks around 13 years ago and have always had a DSB of some sort... I've used a RDSB for the last 4 years or so since it lets me run a higher flow in the display.

Sorry, but for you to say that adding a little sand from a DSB to a fresh DSB will make it into a nitrate factory is ridiculous.

X amount of time doing something does not make u an expert in it, you can be doing the same thing incorrectly for 20 years for all you know so don't state I have X amount of years doing this, how many do you have for it does nothing to prove you are right, or that i am wrong.

a4twenty,

If you destroy all the bac when you scope a little sand out, then how does a fresh DSB seed itself when the only thing u have running through it is oxygenated water, does life just spontaneous emerge from Aragonite ?

Or, does the bac that colonize and seed the DSB come from the oxygenated water that is flowing through the bucket....
 
jman hits the nail on the head. Oxygen does not kill the bacteria , they just stop reducing nitrate until the enviroment around them becomes overall reductive again.
 
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=13923431#post13923431 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by jman77

Sorry, but for you to say that adding a little sand from a DSB to a fresh DSB will make it into a nitrate factory is ridiculous.

In relation to this I agree with you, but I think that they were talking about adding a piece of live rock to the RDSB, not the sand. In that respect I agree, live rock is full of life and will turn a RDSB into a nitrate factory.
 
When I say small.... it means the size of a golf ball and biologically alive. Now, you take a large rock full of sponges, feather dusters, worms and stuff like that ..u will have issues, but even then things should balance"cycle" themselves out if you have enough sand.

Either way ...it's not needed... the sand will seed in time ...

One more thing, going by your theory shouldn't all tanks that have Live Rock placed insides a tank with a DSB become trate factorys since a good portion of the live rock gets burried to create the foundation for the rest of the rocks.
 
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