Easy/cheap way for nitrate reduction...

[chrisdamage]

taken from this month's Coral Magazine:

this new issue of Coral Magazine had an article about Deep Sand Beds and their uses and functions. It gave a pretty rough outline of an idea but to me it sounded extremely simple and cool. I believe the aticle was by Anthony Calfo.


The proposed set up would be to have a standard 5 gallon bucket. Fill it about 1/2 to 3/4 of the way full with a very fine sand... preferably aragonite... you don't need a light because in the article he went into detail about why light is bad for a DSB... and you drill a few holes in the bucket near the top above the sand line and also allowing plenty of room to have decent water circulation(so you don't get a build-up of detritus) and run directly from your main tank into this as part of your filtration...

Now, I say that this sounds like a very easy and inexpensive way to solve problems with nitrate. You wouldn't need a pump because you could just gravity feed the water to the 5 gallon bucket from your display, and then the holes drilled into the 5 gallon bucket above the sand line would then gravity feed the water into your sump/refugium/whatever... Does this sound do-able and easy to anyone but me? A very easy DIY...

Can anyone forsee any problems with this?

Do you ever think that you would have to replace the sand in the DSB?

I think I'm going to give this a whirl on the new tank I'm currently almost ready to set up.

[marineduud]

I'm going to let others chime in before I give my opinion on remote DSB's.

[ScubaTC]

Sounds like a good idea. I've heard of several others making remote DSB as well as remote LR tanks for extra live filtration. I don't recall off hand, but I read somewhere that there is a limit to the depth of sand you would want. After a certain depth it would not be beneficial.

A remote DSB also allows you to spec out the size you need without changing the looks from adding a DSB to your display tank. If you ever want to remove it you could do so without having to siphon the bottom of your tank.

I have a DSB in my tank and have heard that after so many years they completely crash and need to be replaced. I'm not sure how true that is. My DSB has been running about 7 years without any problem. I don't see how they would crash unless somehow you killed off all the live bacteria and critters living in it and excess begins to build up.

[ScubaTC]

uh oh Robert.. Did I speak too quickly? Is there potential for problems?

[grochmal]

I have a RDSB using a 5 gallon bucket on my system.
I can't say that I noticed much benefit, but I left in place anyway.

[marineduud]

Ok I'll give my 2 cents worth about it. Think about a deep sand bed in your tank say a 120gal. tank 48x24x24 with 4in sand bed, flow in the tank is say around 3000gph including PH's so the water flow will penatrate the sand bed at some point and have water flow thru all of the sand right? But take a 5 gal. bucket and fill it with sand and have it feed by a slow moving flow only on the surface how is the water going to get to the bottom of the bucket ?

[grochmal]

Why does the water need to get to the bottom of the bucket?
Are you saying the water should flow through the whole depth of the sand?

[chrisdamage]

I thought that the whole purpose of the DSB was to provide as anaeribic an environment as possible so that bacteria that break down Nitrate could do their job more efficiently. Now, there would be water down in the bottom of the bucket with the bottom layers of substrate, but it just wouldn't have hardly any movement.

As far as sand bed maintenance: what about replacing say, 50% of the sand annually and also vacuuming the top layer of substrate weekly? Would that possibly do the trick in stopping the DSB from crashing?

[grochmal]

Originally Posted by chrisdamage

I thought that the whole purpose of the DSB was to provide as anaeribic an environment as possible so that bacteria that break down Nitrate could do their job more efficiently. Now, there would be water down in the bottom of the bucket with the bottom layers of substrate, but it just wouldn't have hardly any movement.

Correct.
Also, the RDSB is supposed to have fast flow going over it so that detritus doesn't settle on top.

[marineduud]

OK well when your talking about 4in compared to 13in how much water flow is getting to the bottom ? Even in the anaerobic zones a certain amount of water needs to be supplied right? It seems to me that more than half of the bucket would stagnate.

[grochmal]

There is definitely debate about the appropriate depth, and I seem to remember that anything over 8" really had no benefit (but no harm either).

[marineduud]

Originally Posted by grochmal

There is definitely debate about the appropriate depth, and I seem to remember that anything over 8" really had no benefit (but no harm either).

Your right about that thats why I say the RDSB in a bucket is a lost cause but I feel that if you have a 4-6in sand bed which will allow flow thru it will do better the the RDSB and have no issues with Nitrates. JMO
as it has worked for me for 15yrs. and others that I know.

[chrisdamage]

I plan on a 3 to 4 inch sand bed in my display because I want to keep a jawfish and also a pistol shrimp/goby pair... so is the RDSB in the 5 gallon bucket a moot point for me?

[sea devil]

This has nothing to do with RDSB's but it is about a DSB in a fuge. I'll be installing a new,bigger fuge for my 210 reef tank. Actually it's a whole new filtration system I've been piecing together. I've considered going with a 8" sand bed. That will give me a "SB" area that measures 28"x12"x8" I should have around 4"-5" water flow. Is 8" SB too deep or not deep enough in a fuge?? Oh, I just love to hear different opinions. So lets hear them........ NO ARGUMENTS PLEASE!!!......JUST YOUR THOUGHTS/THEORIES/IDEAS/OPINIONS.......

P.S. Existing tank has 4"-6" SB & approx 250-300lbs of LR.

[MikeAtJax]

Why is there a difference between a DSB in the fug or a RDSB?