Are the risks of having a deep sandbed exaggerated?

[brandon429]

The public just can't attain that balance shown above. Your sandbed cross section shows the aging of a 5 year old tank, well done. In most public tanks at year five the cross section pic has lots of black patches fully loaded up

How you manage flow and feeding and export is why the bed ages slowly.

 

[VintageReefer]

The public just can't attain that balance shown above. Your sandbed cross section shows the aging of a 5 year old tank, well done. In most public tanks at year five the cross section pic has lots of black patches fully loaded up

How you manage flow and feeding and export is why the bed ages slowly.

You need these little worms. And a conch. The fighting conch was a game changer for me and my sandbed.

I use medium flow overall. I don’t do water changes. I don’t run a skimmer. I don’t overfeed my fish. I don’t overstock my tank. I feed my corals 2-3x a week, and that takes several cubes of food. Probably 4 cubes of mysis for one round of coral feeding.

My sandbed ranges from 3-4” in most spots except a corner that’s 5” due to flow and fish making caves the sandbed is still bright white but not always captured correctly on camera

It’s maintenance free

 

[brandon429]

For 11 years that's a great looking balance there

 

[Sophie"s mom]

The horror stories are always passed on information. To date I have never heard any first hand accounts of a DSB crashing a tank. There are always underlying causes that usually are due to neglected tanks. The benefits of a DSB are incredible in that it is very effective at nutrient reduction and it simplifies tank maintenance. No high tech gadgets to maintain or monitor. I had one back in the 90's and it made me a believer. My current set up has a 5-6" DSB and my nitrates struggle to reach 10 ppm with alot of fish and feeding heavy 3 or 4 times a day.

A question, when you do water changes (IF you do) do you siphon the sand, or just leave it be? My sandbed is only 3 to 4 inches.

 

[VintageReefer]

For 11 years that's a great looking balance there

Understocking is key also. If you want 10 fish, get a system that is big enough for 15 or 20.

If you system can support 10, get 5-8.

Obviously size and species play in greatly but my “specifics” are just a generalization. Keeping your tanks slightly understocked vs full capacity vs overstocked gives three very different sets of maintenance requirements. Want an easy future…oversizing the tank / understocking fish load will be a big help

 

[brandon429]

Excellent I forgot about that. I didn't even see fishes above in the pics based on what you're saying that makes good sense. It's coral heavy and that doesn't plug up sandbeds like heavy fish loading does

 

[sgdnycct]

You need these little worms. And a conch. The fighting conch was a game changer for me and my sandbed.

I use medium flow overall. I don’t do water changes. I don’t run a skimmer. I don’t overfeed my fish. I don’t overstock my tank. I feed my corals 2-3x a week, and that takes several cubes of food. Probably 4 cubes of mysis for one round of coral feeding.

My sandbed ranges from 3-4” in most spots except a corner that’s 5” due to flow and fish making caves the sandbed is still bright white but not always captured correctly on camera

It’s maintenance free

Yep that’s how a sandbed should look. I have less of the gray sections but mine is not as old as yours. I love seeing the sand change over time as the critters dig around in it.

 

[VintageReefer]

Excellent I forgot about that. I didn't even see fishes above in the pics based on what you're saying that makes good sense. It's coral heavy and that doesn't plug up sandbeds like heavy fish loading does

Tank went from full dark to whites on 100% for some quick pics. Everyone hid or was still in sleep spots

It’s a 75g with a tomini tang, cardinal fish, lyretail anthia, yellow <coris> wrasse, lemon damsel. I’m a bit low at the moment. I had 2 anthias and both went male, and one killed off the other. And I had a firefish also for many years and he got a laceration from the tang and died. So I’m down two fish at the moment. But most of the last year or two I was +2

 

[Minifoot77]

Idk if I missed it but does anyone have experience with a remote dsb? As in a separate tank plumbed into their system?

 

[PPBlimpy]

Idk if I missed it but does anyone have experience with a remote dsb? As in a separate tank plumbed into their system?

I have done this in the past and planning on doing it on the current tank I am setting up.

It is just in my sump, technically remote, but I am going to run a DSB in my refugium chamber approx 9x20 and in another chamber that i plan to use as a frag tank that is also approx 9x20. Sump is a custom job 72x23x17

DT is a 300G shallow 96x30x24 sump is 120

 

[Minifoot77]

I have done this in the past and planning on doing it on the current tank I am setting up.

It is just in my sump, technically remote, but I am going to run a DSB in my refugium chamber approx 9x20 and in another chamber that i plan to use as a frag tank that is also approx 9x20. Sump is a custom job 72x23x17

DT is a 300G shallow 96x30x24 sump is 120

I was thinking of plumbing a 10 or 15 into my current sump since there is no room in my sump

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

Idk if I missed it but does anyone have experience with a remote dsb? As in a separate tank plumbed into their system?

That’s how I ran mine. As noted, I eventually removed it since I was not convinced it did anything.

 

[PPBlimpy]

I was thinking of plumbing a 10 or 15 into my current sump since there is no room in my sump

That could work, just know it does take a long time for the sand to mature. Just like a new system, takes time to stabilize. Its nothing that will work immediately. Not a quick fix but i see it being a help for long term stability.

 

[PPBlimpy]

That’s how I ran mine. As noted, I eventually removed it since I was not convinced it did anything.

how long did you have it set up?

 

[PPBlimpy]

I was thinking of plumbing a 10 or 15 into my current sump since there is no room in my sump

for the two chambers in my sump that i am doing a DSB I plan to have one run at whatever flow my sump is running, 2 12000lph DC pumps at 40% head loss, and the other will run 50-100 gph thru it.

the slow chamber was previously used as RO water storage for auto topoff and completely seperated

I plan to almost run it as its own tank with maybe 100 gph thru the tank. It will have a 4-5" DSB, some rock, powerhead, its own CUC and a fish or two.

might be a fun experiment in 6-12 month to test the outflow water of the slow chamber to see if their is any reduction in nitrates compared to the regular tank.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

how long did you have it set up?

I don’t recall, but likely a few years.

 

[CoastalTownLayabout]

What aspect of the water do you believe a dsb stabilizes?

I believe I said DSBs with fresh live rock provide a more stable starting environment, not that a DSB solely regulates stable water chemistry. I’ll leave you to swirl the test tubes on that question.

I do think they provide more habitat and a better start for micro fauna imported in the fresh live rock.

You’ve been around long enough to have seen plenty of DSB / live rock start ups on RC etc. Do you remember seeing many of these battling dinoflagellate issues and prolonged prolonged ugly stages?

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

I believe I said DSBs with fresh live rock provide a more stable starting environment, not that a DSB solely regulates stable water chemistry. I’ll leave you to swirl the test tubes on that question.

I do think they provide more habitat and a better start for micro fauna imported in the fresh live rock.

You’ve been around long enough to have seen plenty of DSB / live rock start ups on RC etc. Do you remember seeing many of these battling dinoflagellate issues and prolonged prolonged ugly stages?

I think live rock is the difference, not a sand bed.

 

[sgdnycct]

I think live rock is the difference, not a sand bed.

Or maybe both? I feel the more variety of organisms and surfaces for them to live, the better for a healthy biome. While I've had tanks with LR and no DSB, I've never had a DSB with no live rock. I consistently had problems with my LR tanks (either BB or shallow sand). Since I started with DSB+Live Rock it's become easier and less hassle- so I think the DSB is part of it for sure.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

Or maybe both? I feel the more variety of organisms and surfaces for them to live, the better for a healthy biome. While I've had tanks with LR and no DSB, I've never had a DSB with no live rock. I consistently had problems with my LR tanks (either BB or shallow sand). Since I started with DSB+Live Rock it's become easier and less hassle- so I think the DSB is part of it for sure.

I am going to use real ocean sand from TBS in my current tank. It arrives Wednesday. I agree that such sand will add significant benefits, but it is not a dsb.

Unless I intend to keep organisms that need deep burrows in sand (I do not), I cannot think of an advantage that any dsb would have over this sand except possibly the claims of denitrification.