Tweaking BB vs Tweaking DSB

[Viv]

There is a difference right?! I mean besides the change in nutrient load circulating in the tank...I know people have noticed that they don't need as much light, but I have also noticed a change in the water...I don't have scientific proof or anything, just what I have noticed in my tank...but I notice that besides the water being clearer, it seems thinner (for lack of a better word). Maybe its not heavy with micronutrients or something...its, dang I wish I had done an experiment weighing it at the beginning of the conversion to where it is now, I would bet it is lighter...this made me wonder about parameters....I'm finding with a BB tank a lot of the "parameters" thrown out there as a norm for the waters' chemistry are high....as I said, in my tank, but it made me wonder if others are finding this also....I have found a lower salinity, lower calcium, lower alk, ...., well the corals, just seem to respond better to the lower end of "normal" range, rather that like in a DSB, on the "higher" end of normal....and I guess this would make sense if there are less nutrients circulating....what ya think? Have you experienced similiar findings?

[gwaco]

viv , i think why your seeing the corals doing good with the lower end numbers is because they are able to utilize it versus the sand bed sucking most of it up .

[Spanky]

Organics decomposing will tint your water. You don't have that going on now so your water will be clearer.

Most of the additives and high levels of those additives are actually to support the DSB, not the animals you are trying to keep. What happend is that people noticed when they kept those levels high, their corals did better. Without knowing the real reason, they applied that to the animals. So it was said that the animals needed those high levels.

What really happened is the high levels supported the DSB better, which made the DSB support the animals better.

[Viv]

I really am seeing that now! It really took a while for me to get all the extras out, even with boiling the rock it must have had a tremendous amount of nutrients deep within. I really didn't have a lot of detrius, and I really think the rock held a lot of garbage (that must have been on a more molecular level). About 5 months prior to going BB I had cooked the rock, but there must have been a lot gained in a SSB, which I had gone to before the BB. Have you found that the "water chemistry parameters" go below the "norm" with the BB system? As the water becomes less full of extras, it seems I am requiring far less in everything...the skimmer, although still producing, is giving a white bubbling which falls into the cup...it really isn't that dark tea anymore...I guess it's all got to do with the nutrient load....just can't believe the difference I am seeing..even the corals are extending their polyps under compact flourescents...this is a great way to run a tank!

[SPC]

Originally Posted by Viv

Have you found that the "water chemistry parameters" go below the "norm" with the BB system? As the water becomes less full of extras, it seems I am requiring far less in everything...the skimmer, although still producing, is giving a white bubbling which falls into the cup...it really isn't that dark tea anymore...I guess it's all got to do with the nutrient load....just can't believe the difference I am seeing..even the corals are extending their polyps under compact flourescents...this is a great way to run a tank!

What we are seeing is something much more natural for a reef system than the "natural DSB" methodology provided. Now, if we want a system that represents a low flow high organic area in nature, then a DSB might just fit the bill, but I don't believe that we are after that with a reef system.

One of the biggest differences I found when I changed over to BB, as you have too, Viv, was how much less the alk and cal demands became, which is due to not having to support the DSB (as Jerel stated).

Steve

[pito]

So what parameters are you all finding works with your system?