DSB Solution ?

[Buccaneer]

Here is a idea from a HUGE thread over at RC debating the pros and cons of a DSB ... the general consensus at this late stage of the thread ( 45 pages long ! ) is that a DSB will work OK for a few years but is destined to leech phosphates after about the 4 yr mark and thus cause algae blooms ... so the pendulum has swung in the other direction at least from the most vocal in this particular group ... this poster came into the thread late but with a interesting suggestion ... it might be the most logical thing to come out of that thread so far ... take a look and lets get some comments on it ...

Originally posted by Frick-n-Frags
Now what if you used marble-to-golfball sized rubble rock so the detritus all would fall through to the bottom? Maybe you could somehow turn on a magnum(the original closed loop filter ) with its hoses buried below the UG plates to suck out all the detritus in and end to end flow. Then just clean the magnum canister regularly. They have those water locks so you can disconnect the magnum from the plumbing without losing the closed loop. You could use a really coarse media vs a micron filter to let micro stuff through.
What if the surface area of even coarse gravel was total overkill for supporting the necessary nitrobacter, what is/are the remaining advantages of even having sand on the UG plates? ( this btw is pretty darn intruiging ) Why does the sand need to be the small size to trap detritus? Assuming no special sand animals are being kept? I might be glad I shoved all that old tech salt crap in storage instead of pitching it. (I still have 2 Sanders airstone skimmers, which I maybe I should use again up top because of their lighter skimming. My Berlin strips out the phyto bad. Do limewood airstones still exist????)

I feel dizzy, is all this going around too far???????????are we too DSBmophobic??? Don't tell me I was "sand grain size" away from perfection in 1990 I had a sump and a 250w MH back then AND my twin Sanders hangon skimmers. Maybe should have kept my original UG. The sandbed fouling was my first crash 2 years later. Really bad maintenance technique did not help either and it was not a DSB , well yeah, just not Deep but Dolomite Sand Bed, about 3" deep.
In the FO days I could stir 1/3 of the UG sand every few months with those cool siphons that left the gravel no problem though

[StirCrazy]

I don't think this is a realistic option at all for the people who want the "sand" critters as well as the reef. Actualy I think the best thing that has come out of the thread ia running about 1 to 2" of sand. The people doing this are not having the problems of the deeper beeds.

Steve

[Buccaneer]

Maybe you missed the point ? ... the idea was that a substrate was used ( as opposed to NO substrate Ie. barebottom ) but without the maintenance of either a barebottom tank or even a shallow sandbed ... nothing to do with sand critters ... make more sense now ? ... actually I will take it one step more ... if you have a shallow sand bed you will have to vacuum it for detritus ... dont you think you will be vacuuming up those sand critters too ?

[Tau2301]

It's funny I had sort of the same thoughts while cleaning out my 40g w/DSB.

Why not use a plenum and "bagged filter sand" (easy to remove) in a sump. I liked his idea of running a Magnum under the plenum to remove the crap that falls thru.

I think I would still have about two inches of sand in the main tank for appearance and critters.

[Jack]

From what I've read this is what I would do.

I would have 1-2" in the display and have a remote DSB tank, partitioned into two sections. This way I could alternate the cleanings of one side per x number of years.

[StirCrazy]

Originally Posted by Rasta

... if you have a shallow sand bed you will have to vacuum it for detritus ... dont you think you will be vacuuming up those sand critters too ?

and why would I vaccume a shallow sand bed?

ahh ok, personaly i think coating the bottom with a agracreet mixture and making it a giant live rock for a base would be a lot better than going with large rubble. the down side is you have to empty your tank to do this and then cure it.

Steve