DSB How deep

[markc]

A friend is about to set up a DSB he would like some advice from you guys please:
How deep?
What size sand particals?
What type of sand?
This DSB will be in a sump covering an area of 30"x18" the aims is to back up his main tank filtration in a 6x2x2 tank this is Live rock about 60kgs.
Any help would be great.

 

[Anonymous]

hey

4-6" sounds about right

Sugar sized

Argonite

Southdown if you can get it (looks great in my tank) oops I see your overseas so that is not an option. Do a search for live sand bed or something similiar and you should be able to find the size of particle in mm that you need.

have fun

Bryan

 

[markc]

Thanks for the info.How effective is the DSB as a means to reduce nitrates? I have heared some good reports.

 

[Len]

It works quite well. I don't have any empirical data, but tanks with DSBs between the ages of 1 year to 5 years I've personally seen have lower levels of nitrate and occurance of nuisance algae. You know all the denitrifying media that is sold (e.g Denitrix)? Well, they're basically trying to emulate DSBs in creating anaerobic zones that cultivate aerobes for denitrification. DSBs just do it a whole lot better.

 

[markc]

DSB or plenum?

 

[Len]

DSB.

Plenums are DSBs with a pocket of water below the substrate