Well I'm not John but if you don't mind my input perhaps I can shead a little light here.
A good working system is a matter of balance. On one end of the spectrum you have your deep sand bed, live rock, refugium, skimmer and other filterating systems then on the other end of the spectrum you have your load of live stock especialy corals and fish.
For a healthy system you need to keep both ends of the spectrum equally balanced. So if you increase the fish load you will need to increase something on the filteration side.
Now the filteration side is another balanced system in itself. Each system performs more than one function in the removal of the impurities of the water. Some systems are better at removing the Nitrogen ions, others the Phosphates, Proteins etc. However most filter types have the ability to filter out a small amount of one thing and a large amount of something else. Therefore a single filter type could work however it would be very ineffecient.
Not getting into particulars lets say we haqve three tyes of filter I, II, and III. We are removing 3 undesirables namely A, B and C. For each of these we need to remove 200 parts. So we make a chart on the combination
I II III Total
A 10 40 150 200
B 20 170 10 200
C 100 30 20 200
Now say we reduce the size of Filter II in half we get an imbalance.
I II III Total
A 10 20 150 180
B 20 65 10 95
C 100 15 20 185
Now we have created an imbalance which we need to compensate with anoither filter and in this case we will Filter 1 and make it 5.25 times as large as is was prior. The results now will be.
I II III Total
A 52.5 20 150 222.5
B 105 65 10 200
C 525 15 20 560
We are now getting enough filteration however the size and cost of Filter I has increased about 5.25 times and we have more filteration capabilities of impurity C then we realy need.
So hopefully you understand where I look at this as a balance issue. But also keep in mind that dependent upon your load compared to the next persons load your filtering needs will vary. Therefore what might work for John might be completly different than what works for Charlie.
Dennis
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=9557385#post9557385 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by mattsilvester
John,
Do you think your methodology could be applied to a tank with a shallow sand bed? Apart from the sand, my system is going to be pretty simlar to yours:
Skimmer - Deltec 1060s (rated for 530 gals)
1000 gals/hr going through the sump (on a 250 gal system) - not a big sump like yours though.
4 or 5 Tunze streams in the display giving a total of 40-50 tank volumes/hr circulation
I am also rigging up an automatic water chage system, and plan on doing a 5% water change weekly.
I also plan on having a similar stocking plan to yours, and plan on feeding generously.
Is the concept of having a shallow sand in total oposition to your methedology?
Thanks
Matt
