DSB Detritus

[Nitrate Junkie]

I knew this would grab your attention - DSB seems to be like a red rag to a bull in many forums. My decision to use one in my new 6' tank was based on continual nitrate problems i had in my 2' tank previously. (Yeah, I know there are lots of other considerations). Anyway, I read as much as i could about improving nitrates and was heavily influenced by Ron Shimeks philosophies (I've probably lost half of you, my reef friends, by this point). I nearly orgasmed when I took my first nitrate reading in the DSB tank, but I am noticing a lot of crap building up on the surface of the DSB, which makes my nice white reef sand look awful. Lord SHimek says not to vacuum, but i like white sand! what to do?!?!?!?

 

[Anonymous]

I say ignore the "Lord" and do what works best for you! :wink:

Seriously, he led a lot of folks down a really bad path not too long ago with his little diatribe on salt and a lot of folks lost a LOT of corals. - I started to slam him either on RC or here about it, but backed off fairly quick because, well, I don't exactly have a PhD in anything. As it turned out, I know of at least a couple people in my area who were propogating some really nice stuff until they went and followed "Lord Shimeks" advice and switched salts. - They lost so much they simply got out of the hobby altogether. -- And sadly, they were far from alone...

Back to your issue though..

IME, something that'll happen if you DON'T clean the "stuff" up off the sand is that those nutrients will collect there and you'll start to get turf algae building up on top of the sand there.. And if you don't keep up with THAT then it'll start to choke out the sand below it (creating true anaerobic - or at least highly anoxic - regions which is not really ideal in an aquarium environment.) - Those anaerobic (or anoxic) regions are likely to give you fits with bacteria. Your sand will turn a nasty blackish color and not too many forms of life (that we like to see) will do so hot near those areas.

Those are just my observations and opinions though.. - Your mileage may vary... :wink:

Either way, welcome to RDO!

 

[Anonymous]

I really don't see the problems with DSBs that everyone goes on about. Sure some crash, but I am willing to bet they weren't setup properly in the first place. You shouldn't need to vacuum your sand, you should have plenty of critters in there to clean it up for you. Cucumbers for example are really good at this as well as hermits, snails, worms, pods etc. Think about trying to seed your sandbed and adding something like a cuke or hermits.

 

[Nitrate Junkie]

Thankyou for replying. I've been awfully tempted to vacuum, but i think i'll hold off a little longer and just watch how things go. (that's the best part isn't it). I do have a small hermit crab, but the bastard started molesting my new frag of hammer coral so he has been banished to the sump along with a couple of hairy (and man, do I mean HAIRY (sort of Euro 1970's)) crabs. I was going to DSB the sump, but I thought that the pump (4600L/hr) would blast the sand to buggery, so I left it bare bottom. Makes a bit of noise, I think the crabs 'll get a headache.
Anyway, the more I learn, the more contradictions I encounter, and the more confused I get. And I thought marriage was hard! :wink:
Cheers,
AK

 

[Anonymous]

Oh, yeah, and ditto what DiverDan said too.. - Gotta charge up the sand with some critters.. - IPSF sells some nice LS charge-up packages I understand. - And a cuke/conch to keep things stirred up a bit is definitely a good idea. (I didn't have either thats where I had the problems with turf algae starting in like that..)

 

[Anonymous]

I really don't see the problems with DSBs that everyone goes on about. Sure some crash, but I am willing to bet they weren't setup properly in the first place.

IIRC, the ones that crashed that started this new DSB kind of discussion were set up following the good Dr's guidelines.

 

[Anonymous]

I knew this would grab your attention - DSB seems to be like a red rag to a bull in many forums. My decision to use one in my new 6' tank was based on continual nitrate problems i had in my 2' tank previously. (Yeah, I know there are lots of other considerations).

DSB's are great for nitrates.

I nearly orgasmed when I took my first nitrate reading in the DSB tank, but I am noticing a lot of crap building up on the surface of the DSB, which makes my nice white reef sand look awful. Lord SHimek says not to vacuum, but i like white sand! what to do?!?!?!?

Ah, the trade offs in this hobby! :wink:
I think if you are going to follow the word of Lord Shimek, you should really do it and not vacuum. If there is any weight to the idea that 'improperly' set up sand beds crash, don't screw around.

Trying to ignore that red rag! :mrgreen:

 

[Anonymous]

I will second and third the Divers' suggestions, with one caveat - because it's NEW, I wouldn't vacuum. Once it's well-established there should actually be no problem vacuuming the surface of detritus, just don't "go to town" on it. Tiny little baby steps. I'll also suggest that you utilize a refugium with copious macroalgal growth, as this will help greatly with uptake of some nutrients.

 

[Anonymous]

I knew this would grab your attention - DSB seems to be like a red rag to a bull in many forums. My decision to use one in my new 6' tank was based on continual nitrate problems i had in my 2' tank previously. (Yeah, I know there are lots of other considerations).

DSB's are great for nitrates.

Well, the top 2 centimeters anyway. And then once it fills with finer detrital material, well, I'll leave it to your imagination.

 

[Anonymous]

I nearly orgasmed when I took my first nitrate reading in the DSB tank

I never use sand in coral systems and never have nitrate levels readable even on a laboratory spectrophotometer (precision to a tenth of a ppm). Export it before it breaks down.

 

[Nitrate Junkie]

Sorry, I havent figured out how these quote functions work. Regarding detritus build up, I thought the point of a fine grade DSB was to prevent penetration of more than 2cm of detritus, keeping it fairly superficial. My old 2' tank had 1.5cm of coral gravel, bioload of only 2 small Ocellaris and a few leather corals on live rock. I had a skimmer with an input of 2500l/hr, and the fish were only fed every 2 days or so. The fish bloody well died of starvation, my nitrates were always around 20, the skimmer was on 24hrs and well functioning (filling with sludge every 4-5 days), and when i finally dismantled the setup the coral gravel base was filthy. My other parameters were normal , yet hair algae was thriving . So far the DSB has had me changing my religion. :wink: the trouble was, should I be a catholic and leave it natural, or a protestant and insert a plenum! By this stage research fatigue had set in so I went Shimek's way and left it natural 4-5" deep. And by the way, I just sat my LR on top (yeah, heretic :twisted:

I thought about using my sump as a refugium, but the pump i think is too powerful, and besides, I read that macroalgae can play toxic star wars with everything else.
Thanks for your inputs guys.
Cheers from Oz,
AK