Topic of the Week August 28 - Deep Sand Beds

[Craig Manoukian]

Originally Posted by Charlie97L

craig, how many snails/hermits/conchs would you recommend for a 3" in a 58 gallon (36x18). i have 2 scarlets, and about 8-9 nass. snails. and one bugger of a fireworm. he stirs too.

My systenm was an 80 gallon display with a 30 gallon sump/refugium. My maintenance crew consisted of the following:

80 gallon display

• 3" sand bed of sugar argonite/oolite
• 25 large, about the size of a quater, nassaurius snails
• 15 cerith snails
• 15 astrea snails
• two fighting conches
• two large turbo snails
• several worms of variuos genus
• 25 scarlet hermit crabs, (not red legged hermits)

30 gallon sump/refugium

• 5 scarlet hermit crabs
• 6 large nassaurius snails
• 3" sugar sand aragonite/oolite
• mated pair of banded gobies
• cheatomorpha algea
• 2 cerith snails
• 2 astrea snails
• several worms

HTH

[JaxReef]

Sorry to jump in here

A fellow club member has a very very dsb. He has over 50 fish and feeds way too much. The only reason that I can come up with for why he does not have problems from too many fish and over feeding is his 6inch plus DSB

Just look at that deep deep dsb, I aim to have a tank like this one day

[Gina]

Wow! Nice tank!

[Frankie]

Nice. Id like to see the filtration he has if you can get any pictures.

[cheeks69]

A fellow club member has a very very dsb. He has over 50 fish and feeds way too much. The only reason that I can come up with for why he does not have problems from too many fish and over feeding is his 6inch plus DSB

It'll eventually catch up to him, it may take 3 or 4 years but there's no way that SB will continue to function properly long term IMHO.

[JaxReef]

I have heard others say that. That tank is only 6months old


His filtration is just a sump with a fuge filled with liverock and macro. Large ASM skimmer. Link to pic of filter http://www.nfmas.org/mtotm.html

I only use a 4" DSB. Keeps things good for me. I also have a horseshoe crab to stir things up

[Witfull]

deep sand/deep sink....know what your dealing with,,and go from there.

[JaxReef]

not following you witfull

[Witfull]

dsb/ssb/bb each has a plus and a minus. no matter which philosophy you wish to follow, know what needs to be done to maintain it.

[Witfull]

ok,,sorry to the new members,,,,,,

a deep sand bed has a purpose. it can act as a sink to hold toxins in check such as nitrates/PO4/ and other wastes. but can fail if over worked/clogged/ neglected. counter actions- clean up crews, heavy stocking of critters to maintain it.

SSB-a middle of the road approach. looks good, has some of the properties of a dsb. minimal clean up crews and sifters but less of a denitrator.

barebottom- no clean up crew needed. but high flow to suspend diterus, and no denitrating benefits.

all dedends on the environment you wish to duplicate and what you wish to maintain and when.

as i said,,,,pick your poison,,,,just know the antedote.

[JaxReef]

I just didnt follow the deep sand/ deep sink phrase

Deep sink meaning large amounts of phosphates over time right?

[Witfull]

a sink is somehting that holds...so in essense a dsb is a sink. it locks and hold nuitrients. ever look closely at the front of the glass in a dsb. you see bubbles of nitrogen or other gasses as well as a layer of cyno. it may be thin, but its there. this is prossessing P. it will never prossess out but remain in a recycle, until the layer reaches sand/water level. then it will leach into the water columb. if gass bubbles are seen way low to the botto,,,this could be sulfuric gasses(rotten egg smell) a sign of the dsb crashing. similar to a cars catalytic conveter failing.

[cheeks69]

Originally Posted by JaxReef

I just didnt follow the deep sand/ deep sink phrase

Deep sink meaning large amounts of phosphates over time right?

Yes the phosphates will bind to the SB until it becomes saturated then it'll release it back to the tank not only causing severe algae problems but also inhibit calcification of stony corals.

Mike O'Brien:

DSB will only export nitrogen based products if set up correctly all other products that enter it will be sunk and stored.

[JaxReef]

do you think having a flume under the dsb will aid in phosphate export?

[cheeks69]

Originally Posted by JaxReef

do you think having a flume under the dsb will aid in phosphate export?

The best way that I know to export nitrates is:

1.macro-algae in a refugium
2.skimming
3.dripping kalkwasser
4.maintaining high ph
5.using phosphate removing media