thedude

Never heard of anyone having too much actinic light on a tank. The only way it could possibly too much would be just the tank looking too blue for your eyes. The corals can take all the blue light you can throw at them.

I can't comment on plenums either as I have no experience. Something I've read about, but never wanted to do.

As for sand, a few people on here were talking about using crushed limestone from Home Depot. The only true reef sand you can buy outside of a fish store is southdown which home depot only carries on the east coast. I hate rinsing sand enough that I personally spring for the live sand bags everytime.

Velvets don't eat these things, nothing really does.

Aquamedic return pump with the suction cup bottom. Really quiet.

Welcome Willow! We have another member from Copperas Cove, Bcoons. Send him a PM as he always has some xenia to trade away!

Aquatek has a huge dendro colony FYI

I've been preaching tongan nassarius for awhile now and this article was extremely interesting.

http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2006-11/mg/index.php

I agree that DSB were all the rage approximately two years ago. Before that, it was the 1-2inch sand bed, and before that it was Berlin (bare bottom). Now we went back to bare-bottom and right now, I think everyone agrees a little sand is very attractive. Anyway, I'll lay out my opinions (for what they're worth).

No sand (aka Berlin method, bare-bottom):

Great way to see the exact waste a tank actually makes. Detritus is easily removed through a simple suction and water change. Glass is more prone to breaking during a rock slide (explaining many people's use of starboard material). I've run a tank this way, and I won't ever do it again (unless in a QT fashion). My nutrients were actually too LOW, and the tank in general wasn't as pretty. A tank in this fashion also lacks the biodiversity associated with a sand bed.

DSB (deep sand bed as in greater than 4"):

Originally developed as a more "natural" method of dealing with nutrients. This method is in fact not natural at all as this is a closed system with a limiting amount of sand. In the ocean, sand beds continue to FEET not inches and the waste created by fish is able to be completely broken down or transported away. This being said, a DSB is a great method but requires you to view your DSB as any other animal in the tank. This animal needs to be fed (fish waste), its waste must be dealt with (stirring with detrivores, sand-sifting organisms, etc.), and it must not be neglected. One other thing to mention is that once established the deepest part of the bed is toxic, and can not be exposed to animals. I personally would only keep a tank like this for a specific sand species, such as a jawfish.

Jaubert (aka plenum system):

This is essentially a system designed to export a DSB's wastes. Never tried one, never read of one that actually worked long term.

SSB (aka shallow sand bed of less than 3")

This is really a mixture looking for the diversity associated with a sand bed, with no anoxic areas. I like these beds because they can easily be changed, they can be gravel vacuumed, and they offer the beauty of sand. These two need to be treated as the animal they are and cared for accordingly. I love the look of sand, but like the nutrient export of a BB tank. Therefore, I use a SSB that I replace yearly to bi yearly and vacuum every half year or so.

On another note, I've never seen sand act as much of a PH stabilizer until you move animals from a sand bed tank to a bare-bottomed tank (such as a QT). In those situations it is crucial to monitor PH.

I like your 1.5" sand bed personally as it is thin enough that no anoxic zones will ever happen. It also gives you the ability to replace the sand fairly easily should you ever want to.

You never said though... what kind of sand are you using?

John

I second that the Wave2k inventor/owner (Richard?) is top notch. I never even bought one from him and he was more than happy to walk through designing a custom one for a 30 cube for me.

Yes the first shipment came into Aquatek last week.

OK so two questions; First the sand bed exchange.

Great idea, I would never, ever do it. With all the strange pests going around, I would never risk bringing in someone else's sand and infecting my tank. No offense to anyone, but we really have no 100%, for sure safety from pests and I personally, would rather be safe than sorry.

That being said, the sand could always be put into a community "tank" and watching for several weeks like a QT. That's the only way I think a sand bed exchange would work.

Question 2, how do you take care of a sand bed...

You should be looking at both your live rock and live sand as animals in your tank. These animals need flow to expel waste and eat, they need light for some beneficial organisms to grow on them, and they often need food. In the case of our sand beds, they have tiny plankton consuming organisms such as copepods, amphipods, etc. This isn't usually where sand bed maintenance becomes a problem but remember that all those tiny bugs and worms are continually turning the sand over (keeping waste at the top).

The second way to help your sand is on more of a macro scale. If your tank has high phosphate and nutrients, guess where all of that is going to settle. Strong flow will keep these nutrients suspended for long enough that they can be taken out via filter feeders, protein skimming, or mechanical filtration. The other step is to employ plenty of creatures to keep the sand clean. I recommend 1 fighting conch for every 100 gallons or so, Pacific nassarius snails (LARGE variety), and detrivore starfish. My favorite stars are the black or red brittle stars. They stay fairly small and are a true detrivore unlike their carnivore green cousin.

Sorry for my book of a post,

John

I replace sandbeds on client tanks when I see a problem. As a for instance we'll go in to the one I'll be replacing this week.

Dentists' office and he has had the reef tank setup for nearly 6 years. He is an extremely helpful client and knows EVERYTHING about his tank, just has not had the time to take care of it properly. When we came in, he had kept SPS, LPS, and everything in between but the tank currently had a 4 inch sandbed, mushrooms, and a mantis shrimp.

When cleaning the tank, I noticed how dirty the sand looked. This is not only aesthetically unpleasing but I was curious at what lurked below. I basically took out a "core sample" by putting a cup down into the sand and pulling it out. The stuff smelled TERRIBLE. I might add that doing this in a large quantity would be enough to crash your tank. Moral of the story is that after 6 years, the sandbed had not been treated like the live animal it is.

Another extremely successful reefer, Steve Weast, changes his sand out every 8-12 months.

Hope that helps,

John

Dave,

The first thing I would change is your return pump. Ideally, you want 3-4 times the total tank volume to go through your sump an hour. In the case of your 55, this would be 200-300 gallons per hour. The Mag 18 does 1800 gallons per hour and is WAY too big. If you're thinking of a future upgrade I'd go with the Mag 7 and turn it down with a ball valve. I'd highly suggest looking into the Aquamedic Oceanrunner 2700. It does around 700 gph, and is an extremely reliable and affordable pump.

Onto the second part, in tank flow, I'd recommend what I've used before. Maxi-jet 1200's on Hydor "Flo's". Inexpensive and puts out some very random current. If you're looking for something that puts out more flow per powerhead, look into the Tunze Nano Streams that just came out. They are some really incredible little pumps.

Hope this helps and feel free to ask me more questions.

John

I've got a Deltec so I guess all I need is the glasses. I'm in!

I freaking want a pair of those glasses.

That my friend is tricky. First off, would be to take everything out the tank you want to save (liverock, fish, snails, etc.). Then drain as much water as you can (CLEAN water) to use when the tank is set back up. Then you would shopvac out all the old sand, then replace with new. I would use only bagged live sand for this as it should work the best. I'd put down something very thin (1-2in range). When you fill it back up with water, it sometimes helps to cover the new sand in a layer of saran wrap (which is removed after the water is poured in) to help with the sand cloud. Other than that, test for ammonia spikes but you should be fine.

The key to this is not releasing the sulfur, and other poisons found in the anoxic layers of our sandbeds.

John

Flow and nutrients are directly related to cyano because without enough flow, the nutrients needed for cyano to grow settle onto the tank rock and substrate. By increasing the flow, you keep the nutrients in suspension which are taken out by filtration (ie: mechanical, protein skimming) or filter feeding organisms.

John

Yeah these things are fairly large and easily seen by the naked eye once dislodged from the coral.

I might mention that they did come off of the corals I dipped that came from this years MACNA.

The Dude abides

Xenia do fine with 24/7 light, it actually makes them grow faster if you want that haha.

One thing for you to consider Stephen...

The corner tank was not setup as "your" tank and was run by someone else for an extended period. You have no idea what shape he kept the tank in, how much he fed, if he did water changes, etc. The sand bed might be a major contributor to your problem.

John

That's exactly the idea however, that the flatworms period from egg to adult is less than 10 weeks by far. With no food source, any new flatworm eggs recently hatched will starve.

Yeah most of the tiny animals like the sexy shrimp need to be special ordered. If most of the stores kept them stocked regularly, they'd lose them.

Uhhh I don't remember that demo and I've never heard of the bulbs. Got a link Stephen?