Hello Harry and hope that the holidays are going well for you and your family.
The deep sand bed are very tricky if not done correctly and I did it wrong right out the gate the first time. But after hours and hours of reading they do work very well if that's the intention of keeping a DSB AS A FILTER.
If it a sand-bed that is going to be strictly for looks then 3" or less with gobies and other animals to clean it and stir it up is great to maintain it. But please keep in mind that theses animals are key to maintaining it or as you will find in my videos what will happen.
Now if you are going to use it as a filter the 4" rule comes into play and most crabs,gobbies and even some fish are off limits as they eat and filter out whats in the sand that make it work. Here is a link to the best method that I have found on keeping and maintaining a DSB alive and healthy
http://www.ronshimek.com/deep_sand_beds.html
Below Is A LINK of what I went through with my DSB and finally ended up cleaning it up and restarting it.
I hope you enjoy the read as i documented everything I did even with some graphic videos of what was in my sand bed because it was not maintained correctly.
Keeping a DSB as a filter in our reef tanks in my opinion are really a work of art all in its self. There are some strict rules that need to be followed but the benefits are amazing. I have always had almost zero nitrate and 0.01 PO4 for years when the sand beds is working correctly even with out carbon dosing.
Most people don't really understand that a sand bed is a living breathing thing that is self sustaining if given the elements to survive.
So to answer your question I feed my SPS Pappone ( liquid genesis) once every 7 days 5mls this also feeds the sand bed and all the sponges on my tank that in return filter the water to perfection. MY problem is I have to learn to stop adding all this other additives that I really don't need and I am getting there LOL
After getting back my Triton test I have learned what to add and not to add. But again I hope to have a tank tour next year at my home for the club and do a BBQ as well. So that everyone can see what I have learned and failed at eat good and have some laughs.
I cant emphasize enough that knowing where your water levels are at is the key to maintaining a reef tank.
I don't mean chasing numbers I simply mean that you need to test your water and see what is going on. Yes the live stock tells you whats going on but I have found that my water was fine at one point and my lighting was the cause of bad colors.
If you need any specific information on deep sand beds the best advice I would give anyone is to read the book in the link I have provided. Send me an email and I will scan of the pages if you don't want to buy it.
http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=2361052
Michael
