Sandbed thread

[Capt_Cully]

Do you have BB, SSB, DSB, Remote DSB?
Do you disturb it/siphon with water changes?
Clean up crew/sand sifters?

What are your feelings on sand beds? Helpful for bacterial filtration or nitrogenous waste sink/leaching fields?

 

[wetbehindears]

Dsb in the dt and a very dsb in the fuge bare in frag tank

I dont sturr the dt cause flow is very high so sands always clean and i have a large diamon goby who is ocd wiht his sandbed.

I sturr the fuge up to release some life into the display prolly about 1 time a month just a slight sturr i always rotate the locations i ster up so i dont do more harm than good.

 

[dreaminmel]

Currently:
*SSB
*Every so often when I turkey baste the rock I'll puff at the sand too. If I start seeing a lot of crud come out that's when I intend on replacing it in sections. (Last time I replaced it all at once I lost the Blue Linckia I'd had for years.) I don't siphon the sand as it's such a fine texture I'd be removing it instead of cleaning it. I'm finding crud builds up much more slowly with fine sand vs. when I was using the cheap stuff from the box stores or the Caribsea Seaflor Special Grade.
*Those that work on the SSB in my tank are conch snail, two sand cukes, a nassarius snail and a total of five fish that disturb it when they retire for the night.

Over the years I have done SSB, DSB and at one point ran without sand. Still haven't experienced a remote DSB so can't comment on that. Of the three I've done, I can say they will all work and function just fine. I just prefer the SSB personally. I don't rely on the sand to perform biological function but find that having a short layer of it is more pleasing to my eye and also more natural for some of the inverts and fish that I keep.

 

[Gary Majchrzak]

RDSB in sump half BB/SSB display here.

 

[sedorusc]

half ssb half in between deep and shallowform one side of DT to the other.

 

[Henry Colf]

shallow bed of crushed coral here. Vacuum it when I do water changes which is about 30gals every other week.

 

[block head]

1.5 oolitic sand in the dt. conch and snails do the dirty work. quick turkey blast when changing water.

 

[Conesus_Kid]

SSB

I puff it with a turkey baster before each water change.

 

[Gary Majchrzak]

Mark- thread in link #2 of this thread is an excellent read:

http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=762974&highlight=links

 

[Gary Majchrzak]

for some reason or another that link now appears dead :uzi:

 

[Gary Majchrzak]

related thread from URS history:
http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=289295&highlight=deep

I find it odd that critical links have now been erased!

 

[Gary Majchrzak]

Mark- you have SSB now, correct?

 

[Capt_Cully]

SSB here, I've been out at the lake all day and am currently unable to reasonably discuss my reasoning for this post. I'll revisit it in the am.

Thoughts on SB's DSB's going toxic?

 

[Gary Majchrzak]

I think sandbeds provide an ideal place for phosphates to easily accumulate

 

[Jacwil]

Agreed Gary....I have a somewhat DSB, (crushed coral) in our DT...approx. 3". When we first began in the hobby last August, we bought our tank as a starter kit. The sales person at this store sold us a large bag of crushed coral and told us to use the whole bag in the 37g aq. It turned out to be approx. 4-5"! Since then our PO4's have been very high...highest was .75. I have slowly over a few months, siphoned bit by bit out to the 3" we have now. I will continue this until it is dwn to a SSB.

The 14G and the new 40B, both have dustings of cc.

 

[Flanders]

I will never have a DSB again.

 

[Capt_Cully]

OK, here's the reason I ask "the locals". I was on Reef Discussion out of boredom at a side job. I made the point that it's probably better to disturb a sandbed than to let it sit. A sand sifting cleanup crew is not enough, IMO, to stave eventual toxification of a sandbed whether it be Deep or Shallow. Cleanup crew's do poop afterall. This in turn will CONTRIBUTE to problem algae blooms. I was jumped on "I've never touched my sand and have no algae, and my tank is a year old", "Some of the sickest tanks I've seen have DSBs and no algae problems".

I made my point purely as food for thought, and not as a challenge to others beliefs. Merely offered my experience for others to do with what they will. I did, however, state that if I were a betting man, I'd bet on the SB becoming a problem at some point.

I think that if you keep a sandbed it should be siphoned and stirred regularly so that you're not introducing, say 6 months worth of wastes all at once. Better to do it weekly or monthly, whatever your schedule.

I believe the phosphate and nitrogenous wastes will eventually be released back into the water column after a period of time....a year or two or even three. I think it's more than fine to replete siphoned off sand with new fresh rinsed sand. I do take into account that the silicates present in fresh aragonite, can lead to an unwanted algae bloom. Probably cyanoalgae.

I tend to value the opinions of the peeps here on URS rather than most of the people at large on the bigger forums. I just wanted to see where everyone stood. Thanks for thoughts, experiences, and opinions.

Cully

 

[Flanders]

I totally agree. after taking a break from the hobby for a few years and coming back here, I was a little surprised to find that people still have DSBs and still think it's a good idea after so many people had problems and ditched them years ago.

I was also surprised to see people concerned about nitrates, or setting up remote DSBs to deal with nitrates. I am not a guy who keeps a lot of fish in an aquarium, but I have never had any problem with nitrates, ever.

 

[Capt_Cully]

I don't test for phosphates, nitrites, or nitrates on a regular basis, if ever anymore.

I had an episode about 6 months ago where all of my SPS lost its bright color and became more of a pastel. I'd also lost a few LPS in rapid succession. An LPS pathogen might have been a concominant issue, but that's not the point.

After much testing and discussion with Jeremy (jeremym420), we thought perhaps the SSB, which had insidiously become Deep in some spots, might be to blame. I prepared for a large scale display tank detoxification. I got a 100gallon rubbermaid stock tank from ABC and siphoned most of my SB out, and performed a 100 gallon water change as part of the process.

It was for all intents and purposes about a 3 or 4 year old SB. The amount of muck, detritus, and malodorous water I siphoned off was what convinced me that my SB was just a toxic sink hole that had become over saturated. No longer a useful ally in denitrification, but quite the opposite. There was NO WAY any reasonable reef keeper could look at and smell all that muck and tell me it was ok to have anywhere in my captive reef.

Low and behold, about 3 weeks later, the LPS attrition had stopped and the SPS coloration returned to its former beauty. I have no actual data to make this a scientifically compelling exercise, just the experience to arm myself with.

I'm not saying I'm right or wrong, but I know which way I'll lean in the future.

 

[Gary Majchrzak]

once you've experienced what you're describing there can be no doubt about it, Mark