Deep Sand Beds for Freshwater tanks

['vspec']

No, if you're going for a deep bed you never really want to stir it up yourself. You can disturb the top inch or so safely during vaccuuming and cleaning, but you don't want to dig deeper than that if you want the fish to stay healthy.

I agree with this statement as a general rule. Cause ultimately its best left alone to run its course. However like all rules, given the variables and the understanding, you can logically bend them based on your own risk assessments.

Ideally, your ether thinking pro actively to begin with when designing your environment, so you have multiple natural redundancies in place,..... or you make the sump your tool bench ; leave open spaces for easy deployment that you measure progress with ease.

Neat trick to deploy is called "grid square" basically cell/brick up you zones or items. In this case Hollow glass or acrylic bricks that you can fill with sand to a specific depth, thus limiting most negatives.

This as with anything else you add to your sump, allows for the 'add or subtract' with ease.

Its not how much you know, it knowing when to pull when nature takes off. At least it gives you that illusion like you have some control.

V-out

 

[knifegill]

I am considering employing a DSB and an algae scrubber. I may run a test tank here soon. Knifegill, where do you get your black worms and MTS

I bought them as "Live bloodworm" at my LFS. If you poke enough, you can get them to tell you what species they are selling.The blackworms I have are doing well anywhere between 55ºF (they don't breed, they just don't need as much food. This is a recommended storage temperature for large quantities of worm in small amounts of water with daily rinsing. A dumb way to go unless you are made of money and like buying and rinsing worms all the time.) At about 75ºF their metabolism seems to do really well and they reproduce for me. They love piles of lava rock and gravel about 1" deep on average. They will be feeding on micro life, so pinches of active yeast and squirts of green water do wonders. Understock and remove a few pinches worth of worms every few days. Regular water changes are best. Also, they did really well in a tank I had some crushed coral in. Not sure if it was related, so you might try two cultures and see which does better if interested in that variable. Check Aquaria Central for the extensive articles and fine details that a user named something like "deedeeK" has written. She's way ahead of me in caring for the little annelids.

The MTS were free, as they occupy most tanks in my LFS.

 

[Tien]

Thanks knifegill! I may consider breeding them but I just want to keep some alive in a DSB if i establish one. I wonder if a DSB and an algae scrubber together will be overkill as they perform the same functions. I will set up a small goldfish tank this weekend and test a scrubber. If it works, I may romove it, try a DSB. If both work I will then try to run the system with both together.

 

[knifegill]

I'd expect the DSB to out-compete the algae scrubber. Just a guess, I don't which one could hold out longer with minimal nutrition. I assume the DSB since it has nutrients trapped in it and the algae would just hang there starving.

 

['vspec']

I'd expect the DSB to out-compete the algae scrubber. Just a guess, I don't which one could hold out longer with minimal nutrition. I assume the DSB since it has nutrients trapped in it and the algae would just hang there starving.

Yeah, Its a non contest anyways.

Bacteria have the ability to go dormant for any stint, where as algae is singular through to full multicellular living networks. Its definitely plant category & govern by the same environmental considerations - Snow algae for a lasting example, usually running singular, just to cope within a limited environment.

 

[CharlieTuna]

DSB's, very interesting. If one were to have a DSB in a remote sump, would you wanted it planted? Can you still run UV sterilization with a DSB or would the UV strip away needed nutrients.

 

['vspec']

Its up to you if you still want to plant.
And UV will do nothing to impact the bed

 

[Danger_Chicken]

[QUOTE='vspec';448467;0]Get to back to some live examples, have you negated the other factors yet in order to give some results?. No, when they are negated I wont have a clean slate to test as the DSB has been in place for several months. Since it's the only bio filtration I have I can't remove it. I may be willing to start up another tank for testing, but no time for that right now.

Ok just so ive got this correct, this is a brand new first quarterly tank?No this tank is over 2yrs old. The sump was new in May
If so, if your willing, this can be the online benchmark for conversation I'd love to but I don't have any pre-DSB data (I did record some reading about a month before the FX5 was removed, but there are so many other variables that data isn't of much value). The stock was changing regularly the past 6-9 months and I had tab water issues over the summer which threw off the water changing schedule consideriably. Basically, other than stating where the parameters are now, all conclusions would be speculation IMO. There is one other factor to consider, if that is removed than I could come to some conclusions. But I don't see that changing anytime soon.

From my perspective, I found the freshwater environment stabilised within this time, whereas in marine, from an anaerobic prospective, it really hit its stride in the next quarter ( between 3-6months )[/QUOTE]
I use mts and plan on putting blackworms in. I use to culture blackworms but had some tab water issues and lost the culture a while ago. That worm guy is crazy, his prices are high and the info he gives on care is only for people that want to buy every week. I kept mine in a 5g tank with room temp water, no heater, only filteration was an airstone, no substrate. If I had a fish die I'd drop it into the 5g tank with the worms and they'd tear it up. I'd feed sinking pellets too; they'll thrive on anything high protien. They like the dark so I painted the tank black. The population doubled roughly every 4 weeks. If I had 1lb of worms I'd have to change the water every 3 days, 1/2lbs could go 2 weeks. Keep a tight fitting lid cause they stink.

 

[knifegill]

Mine love bits of tuna.

 

[Danger_Chicken]

hmm good idea