Do I Want A Deep Sand Bed

[magnum629c]

I have a reef tank with a canster filter. Do i want a deep sand bed? I only have 20 pounds in a 90 g tank. What do deep sand beds do?

 

[Opcn]

A DSB does two things, firstly it removes nitrates in the anaerobic sections created at the bottom, secondly, it houses a whole host of small invertebrates. It will be a significant loss of working tank volume, and if you have sand movers like sand burrowing stars, horseshoe crabs, or pistol or mantis shrimp I would urge you not to, but if you don't you can get a DSB and have really low nitrates (and I'll bet that canister filter really boosts nitrates too) and its a great place to seed with burrowing amphipods that will provide supplemental food for your fish, and spaghetti worms that will provide entertainment, and microstars, which are wonderful detritus eaters (although mine seem to roam all over the tank gettting into trouble and losing arms to filters)

 

[magnum629c]

Are there any neg-s to having a deep sand bed in the tank?

 

[SkiFletch]

There are two drawbacks to doing it in-tank. The first is that over time the DSB will become overwhelmed with nutrients and require changing. Usually this happens within 12-24 months, sometimes sooner, sometimes later, but when it does, parts of the DSB can turn toxic and actually be detrimental to the system.

Second trouble is if you dont have a well-designed cleanup crew to stir it up it will become toxic sooner. Then one day a fish or invert or what have you disturbs an area not usually turned over and toxic chemicals are released into the water column... Not good.

However, both of these problems are solved using the DSB in a bucket method, aka the remote DSB. They're usually ran off of sumps in a 5g bucket. Fill the bucket most of the way with sand, fit it with two fittings near the top (and the top needs to be above the level of your sump). Hook one fitting up to a pump that you rest in the sump, and another to drain back into the sump. Water is pushed up, stirs around the surface, and returns back to the tank. Nothing is going to disturb it, so in 12 months or so, just replace the sand... All done

 

[Redstratplayer1]

I looked in to one to.

The are easy to do and reduce nitrates

The following is some vary good reading about them DSB and RDSB

 

[Opcn]

There are two drawbacks to doing it in-tank. The first is that over time the DSB will become overwhelmed with nutrients and require changing. Usually this happens within 12-24 months, sometimes sooner, sometimes later, but when it does, parts of the DSB can turn toxic and actually be detrimental to the system.

Second trouble is if you dont have a well-designed cleanup crew to stir it up it will become toxic sooner. Then one day a fish or invert or what have you disturbs an area not usually turned over and toxic chemicals are released into the water column... Not good.

However, both of these problems are solved using the DSB in a bucket method, aka the remote DSB. They're usually ran off of sumps in a 5g bucket. Fill the bucket most of the way with sand, fit it with two fittings near the top (and the top needs to be above the level of your sump). Hook one fitting up to a pump that you rest in the sump, and another to drain back into the sump. Water is pushed up, stirs around the surface, and returns back to the tank. Nothing is going to disturb it, so in 12 months or so, just replace the sand... All done

There are people who go years with a DSB and never have it go toxic, also if it does go rinseing is a cheaper and more ecologically friendly method of fixing the problem.

 

[SkiFletch]

There are people who go ears with a DSB and never have it go toxic, also if it does go rinseing is a cheaper and more ecologically friendly method of fixing the problem.

Agreed, and there are also the unfortunate few that can have them go toxic . Here is another example of how few absoloutes there are in this hobby

 

[Opcn]

As it turns out sand stirrers like bumble bee snails and sand sifting stars can cause toxic build up too, In a normal situation worms and sand dwelling pods would build up a population, in a tank with sand predators in it however the critters that would normally be in the sand eating left over food (the part that becomes toxic) and absent for the most part and food can build up.