Bi-Weekly Discussion of the Week: Substrates

[Geoff]

Ok, there has been a lot of talk about removing DSB's. what are people leaning towards now? bare-bottoms, coarse sand, fine sand just thin, LR, and foam. what are your thoughts.

Ok you think tankers, lets try and keep the words under 40 characters each for this one.

for those who want to find out all there is to know, and have a lot of time on your hands, here are the Think Tank links:

Some funny misconceptions I've read about DSB's

Is there a way to make a DSB work?

Limitations of DSB's

G~

[photobarry]

Corals need water, not sand.

[Geoff]

OK, so we have one vote for glueing the corals directly to the glass.

G~

[photobarry]

[Spanky]

ROTFL Good one!

I vote for StarBoard!

[kram138]

Pending the final results of Tom's survey, I'm going with a DSB with raised (supported) live rock.

[Junkzoo]

Well, Aragonite in the 75 now,,just enuf to cover the bottom,(i remember i put in in there, can't see it now)
got 600# + of Yardright for the 200g,,,(i know , i know,someday)
like Jerel offered, do the 200 in SD,,,,
re-set up the 75 for SPS,bare.Starboard,,,,etc.
either way, i got plenty of ballast for the Pick-up this winter,,,

[Imaexpat2]

140 lbs of Indo-Pacific plus 20 lbs of GARF Grunge in the 135 gallon tank on bare botton, with pvc to support live rock at sand level.

Good - Bad....I dont know?

[yardboy]

I don't know what I have, 40# of some CaribSea mix, fairly coarse, with 20# of oolitic. I'm not crazy about it, as the fine stuff has tended to filter to the bottom, making slim pickings for my goby to sift through. I wish, oh I wish I'd suspended my liverock off the sand. Too late now, I've removed half the rock once to retrieve an anemone, never have got it back the way it was. Casey's got a lot of faith to completely revamp hs beautiful tank. I'm not that brave, yet.

[tims]

i am using CC now. had sand in one tank but could not keep it from being blown around. IT was my 1st tank years ago. thinking of seetting up a 100 g soon and will most liklt try DSB this time.
another question would be how deep does every go with there bottom if it is not just glass?

[Awestralian]

Anyone use small rock size peices of argonite?
Smaller than a half inch across, but bigger than sand size...

[Geoff]

Awestralian-interesting idea. this would be a good idea if you have a huge amount of flow in the system. if not then the detritus would settle in between the rocks and cause problems.

G~

[Geoff]

OK, speaking of detritus.

how do you all keep it from collecting in your tanks: the DSB gets rid of it all? the nassarius snails make it all vanish when i am sleeping? i siphon it out with the SO's vacuum when they are not looking? what is detritus and what does it have to do with substrates?

G~

[tkjeffrey]

here, here Geoff, I change water weekly but between that i get pockets of crap (literally) in parts of my tank from PH's blowing it to certain points in the tank. I have been siphoning this out....havent seen anything eat s**t in my tank, if there is something that gets rid of it let me know because the piles of crap in the tank are worrysome

[photobarry]

I potty train my fish.