Southdown Play Sand

[myreeef]

Add the salt, start skimming and filter, keep the water in the tank flowing. It'll clear up! Add LR either now or after it clears up. If you are patient, IMO get uncurred LR, as it generally has tons more critters, but you'll go through a longer cycling time with larger amonia, nitrite and nitrate spikes.

Everything that happens in a reef takes a long time...unless it's bad, than it happens real fast :twisted:

BTW that cloudy water won't hurt anything, if your tank had been up and running and you added substrate and got cloudy water like that, everything (corals and fish) would be alright. At least that is what I have been told by friends who have added substrate to an already established tank.

Good Luck

 

[Anonymous]

LOL, it is so funny how fast mythinformation spreads on the internet.

I have the DSB ticking time bomb in my 415 going on 3 years now. 100% Southdown, about 900lbs of it. I have nearly 20,000 gph of flow in the tank with Tunze Streams, Eductors, Sea Swirls, Closed Loop, etc. and don't have any issues.

FWIW, Nathan

Add another one to that, the reef tank at my university that has been going for over a decade now with a sand bed composed of Southdown and a lot of infaunal organisms. Mythinformation IMO as well...

 

[T.Maxima]

Tick- tock...tick- tock...

 

[T.Maxima]

cyberkiller - add the salt. Also add some liverock and a piece of un-cooked table shrimp to get some bacteria started. Once the bacteria starts to establish, it will "grab" on to the smaller particles suspended in the water column helping to clear up the water.

 

[GSchiemer]

freshwater + 25lbs of slightly rinsed southdown =

It's been like this for 3 days now, even have a hangon filter/coal running. How do I fix this? I haven't added salt yet in fear I will have too tear her down already. I haven't put liverock in yet since theres no salt and I can't even see in the tank, im not even sure if I have enough sand in it yet. I've been cleaning out the hangon filter every fews hours and i've done about 15% water changes a day trying too get the clouded water ot.

Gotta love that Southdown. And it's only $5 a bag! :wink:

 

[T.Maxima]

cyberkiller - go to reef central and check out a thread titled "Whats with all the dsb bashing". it's in the reef chemistry forum.

 

[npaden]

T. Maxima, There have been similar threads here. DSB's are just the latest scapegoat for people who need something to blame their latest tank problems on IMO. Properly planned, setup and maintained they work very well but they are not the be all end all cure for all things wrong with reefkeeping that some would have you to believe and they are for sure not the ticking time bomb that others would have you believe either.

Cyberkiller, You need some bacteria in the water column to help you clear the water. You either need to add salt and then add some live rock or add a table shrimp or something to start the cycling process going and give the bacteria something to start using to multiply. They will clump the grains of sand together and it will fall out of suspension.

FWIW, Nathan

 

[T.Maxima]

npaden-The thread that I'm refering to covers a few more alternitaves other than dsb's for nutrient export - isn't that what a dsb is for? Jmo, but I would rather grow and harvest macro or even run a coil denitrator than have a "toilet" that has not been "flushed" in my tank... I do believe there is an echo in here as far as info on how to get the tank to clear up. T.Max

 

[npaden]

T. Maxima, so do the threads that were discusssed on this board. There are a lot more reasons to use a DSB than for nutrient export, didn't the thread on RC discuss that? Do you know the definite drawbacks to growing and harvesting macro algaes and running coil denitrators? I'll stick with my toilet of a DSB.

Your annoying "tic tock" is enough of an echo for everyone so I will try to avoid providing useful advice that would come anywhere near matching the advice you might have given.

FWIW, Nathan

 

[GSchiemer]

Cyberkiller, You need some bacteria in the water column to help you clear the water. You either need to add salt and then add some live rock or add a table shrimp or something to start the cycling process going and give the bacteria something to start using to multiply. They will clump the grains of sand together and it will fall out of suspension.

FWIW, Nathan

Or spend $20 for a bag of Nature's Ocean Live Sand and be done with it. Not only will you have aquarium-safe sand, that doesn't need to be rinsed, doesn't clump, clears in minutes, and has the consistency of a natural reef sand bed, but it contains the necessary bacteria as well!

Greg

 

[T.Maxima]

tick tock.....tick tock....tick tock....tick tock.... How's that for an echo. What's up with all the aggression? My "useful advice" is no better or worse than your "useful advice".

FWIW, T.Max

 

[keethrax]

tick tock.....tick tock....tick tock....tick tock.... How's that for an echo. What's up with all the aggression? My "useful advice" is no better or worse than your "useful advice".

FWIW, T.Max

Ths constant repetition of this is much more annoying than his. Thus the agression. Stop attempting to be annoying, and you'll be better off.

The advice you offer is probably just as valid, but your methods are just tedious and annoying, and thus the agression, which you have brought on yourself. And for "agression" it was pretty darn mild.

There are certainly issues with DSB's, but there are also issues with any of the alternatives you suggested. It's not black and white despite your constant annoyiong repetitoin. You seem to believe "if I repeat useless drivel long enough it will become truth". And while the information parts aren't useless drivel, the repeated tick tock certainly is.

So leave out the annoying repetition and present your argument in a more rational manner, and you'll get the respect you deserve.

There are enough people that have DSB's and have for a *long* time that they can't all be a problem. And the anti-DSB peopel tend to blame any crash in a tank that has a DSB on the DSB. If this were tru, tanks without them would never crash. I have no doubt DSB's have led to tank crashes, but I find it hard to believe that it's inevitable, and until you can produce concrete evidence there will always be people with perfectly logical argumetns on either side.

So provide us with conrete proof that what you say is true (that a DSB will inevitbaly fail, not that it may fail), or accept that there's more than one way to do it and move on.

 

[T.Maxima]

Gschiemer - well said.

cyberkiller - just remember to take any advice you get about this hobby with a grain of salt. Some will be good, some not so good. With the resources we have now (forums and such) it's alot eaiser to weed through the bs.

 

[T.Maxima]

I had a dsb in my 75. Never had the first prob. with it. In fact the guy I sold it to still has it in the tank. But there is no way in hell you can convince me that having all that detritis in the sandbed will some day not have a detrimental effect. Hows this for "constant annoying repetition". Tick tock.... tick tock....

 

[mikesroth]

Put some salt in the water, and then Live rock. The Live rock helps a TON!!! I got a bunch of 'Live Sand' from someone to restart my 29, and I got that wonderful cloud you are seeing now. Once I put the rock in, within a day I could actually see my rock in the tank.

Michael

 

[Anonymous]

Cyberkiller, You need some bacteria in the water column to help you clear the water. You either need to add salt and then add some live rock or add a table shrimp or something to start the cycling process going and give the bacteria something to start using to multiply. They will clump the grains of sand together and it will fall out of suspension.

FWIW, Nathan

Or spend $20 for a bag of Nature's Ocean Live Sand and be done with it. Not only will you have aquarium-safe sand, that doesn't need to be rinsed, doesn't clump, clears in minutes, and has the consistency of a natural reef sand bed, but it contains the necessary bacteria as well!

Greg

Are you being serious here Greg? Why pay $20 for this stuff when you can add the bacteria yourself along with your LR?

Tick- tock...tick- tock...

:roll:

How much longer than a decade would you like it to go before you admit you might be wrong? How many decade old tanks do you have?

 

[GSchiemer]

Are you being serious here Greg? Why pay $20 for this stuff when you can add the bacteria yourself along with your LR?

Yes. It's not about the $20. IMO, live reef sand of the correct consistency is superior to "Southdown" or any of the dry sugar-fine sand products for use in the typical reef aquarium. Unless your goal is to recreate a stillwater lagoonal reef or mangrove swamp, then powdered sand or mud is an inappropriate choice of substrate.

I don't want to get dragged into the DSB debate, but I'm not a fan of this methodology either. I think it's unnecessary, provides no discernable benefit that can't be obtained in other (better) ways, can be dangerous, and it looks plain ugly. Aquarium space is valuable. I can't justify taking up one-third of my valuable vertical space with a pile of sand. I prefer corals and fish.

Greg