Sandbed Study

[ChrisRD]

I'm surprised this article hasn't generated more conversation yet...
http://www.advancedaquarist.com/2005/6/aafeature

"In terms of processing nitrogenous wastes from aquarium inhabitants (specifically ammonia, nitrite and nitrate), none of the experimental treatments (plenum vs. sandbed; deep vs shallow; coarse vs. fine) appeared to have a significant advantage."

"The significant differences among the experimental treatments were almost entirely in the buffering capacity of the sediments rather than the biological breakdown of nitrogenous waste products."

"Our experiment shows no evidence for any of the espoused benefits of a plenum..."

 

[Len]

Hehe. Me too

 

[Anonymous]

That reminds me, I need to order some starboard for my new tank

Louey

 

[Anonymous]

Hehe, well I saw Rob's preliminary data on this like two years ago so it's not much of a surprise anymore.

But I think one of the other very important points he made was this:

"Even in the lab, identical aquariums set up from a single well-mixed pool of gravel and seawater without any live animals in them show a dramatic amount of variation among trials (Fig. 3). I'm sure you can imagine how much more variation there would be among tanks set up by different people in different locations and with different materials and animals! It is only by having properly replicated experiments that we can evaluate whether the treatment itself has any effect, or whether the differences among tanks are simply due to random chance. If you cannot repeat the effect that you are trying to create, then the effect obviously has little to do with the treatment that you have applied. This is one of the problems with the hobby: we too often take a single example of a successful aquarium as "proof" that some miracle design or additive really works well. However, more often than not, when you as a home aquarist try to reproduce the spectacular effect of a given aquarium, the result is considerably less spectacular. This failure is not necessarily your fault, and in fact even the person who set up the original tank will probably not be able to exactly duplicate their own success."

 

[ChrisRD]

That is a good point and I think it explains why we see so many trends come and go in the hobby.

 

[Anonymous]

That is a good point and I think it explains why we see so many trends come and go in the hobby.

And then we get articles titled "some old (or are they new?) thoughts on aquarium techniques". Or something along those lines.

 

[Anonymous]

Be interesting to see this compared along side a bare bottom with live rock tank as well. ...To see if just rock can keep pace with the processing of a sand bed, plenum or not.

 

[Oceans Ferevh]

Hmmm, sounds like a job for some advanced aquarist (hint hint)