Great sandbed article in AFM

[jgadbois]

Dr. Ron,

Thanks for the excellent sandbed article in the March issue of Aquarium Fish Magazine. It's great to have all the sandbed info in one handy location. I can't believe they want to cut back on your contributions. If they get rid of the reef material, I will get rid of my subscription.

I also noted the name Shimek appeared more than once in Delbeeks temperature article ;)

[rshimek]

Morn'n,

Glad you liked the sand bed article. I haven't seen it yet, I hope it came out okay.

Yeah, I suspect I am Charles' epitome of evil with regard to temperature.

I will an article in the May or June article of AFM discussing temperature and salinity.

[Ironreef]

The thing about temp. before it was said you need to keep low temp like 76-78 well for some ppl its really hard without a cH$ller. But 80-85 I keep mine and corals do fine. I was always worried before but now I can relax and enjoy the growth.

[Orm Embar]

Ron--I suspect that Mr. Delbeek holds you in more favorable regard than an "epitome of evil" . . . :p

Seriously; the article came out very nicely except for a missing " mark on page 56, middle column, 5 lines up from bottom (live sand" instead of "live sand"). Very informative, tho I did chuckle on reading "deep sand bed, a process that is nothing short of miraculous occurs . . ."

But I think that you have sold me on DSB's, and my next tank will be my first reef without a plenum, I think.

Definitely was a wake up call last year when I found out that the sifting gobies I have had are destructive and counterproductive to a healthy sand bed. It's also very interesting to note the difference between that sand bed (looks like sand, a rare tubeworm casing) and my corner refugium partitioned off, where the sand layers out and there are many tubeworm tubes and little anemonelike thingies growing out of the substrate . . . at the very least, it looks cooler . . .

[JamesB]

In the same issue, Delbeek claims that sand beds eat up oxygen at night, leading to potentially low oxygen content (my paraphrasing). That's the first I've heard of that. Comments?

Later, James.

[rshimek]

Hi James,

All life eats up oxygen at night, there is a lot of life in a bed, so it can draw down oxygen. How much is open to question, as usual, Charles has no data.

However, this nocturnal draw down of oxygen occurs in all tanks with a lot of life and should be very pronounced in tanks with a lot corals for example. The way to counter it is to have a good skimmer going as these will aerate water in a big way.

By the way, the oxygen depletion also occurs over reefs in nature.

If you tank is adequately aerated, it isn't anything to worry about.