Dr Jaubert's method / Plenums

[Callum]

Hi Everyone,

Second question for the day.

What is the general opinion on the Jaubert / Plenum method?
I read good things and bad things. The good things a very good. The bad things I hear are just, "don't do it, it's to easy to stuff up" if that is true, then why is it easy to stuff up? it seam relativly straight forward to me!!


Thank you all!

Callum.

Am wondering if it is worth setting upa 29 gal as a first attemp at reefing, all of the sump, drilling the tank etc, seams like to much for such a small tank!

[Fishy Something]

Hi Callum (fellow Aussie Reefer)

I have a plenum in my 4x2x2, and whilst most critters are pretty happy, I have never been able to control Nitrates, they always hover between 10 & 20 ppm. Whilst most beginner animals are pretty forgivving, I am now wanting to try some more difficult to keep, and cannot/will not until my nitrates are under control.

My readings here & elsewhere have suggested DSB may be a better way to go to get to the 0 ppm goal.

Besides this I have not had any great difficulties with the tank. Regular water changes etc, but that goes with the territory for any substrate.

James

[Angel*Fish]

The nitrates in my 30g stay mostly at 0 or trace... it has creeped up to 5. My tank is 5 years old, has ~45 lb live rock stacked w/as much space as possible between each rock. Also there is a rather large area behind the rocks as wide as 5 in some spots between the rocks and the back wall . Water is sucked in from that area but it is pretty still back there and, I think, a good breeding ground for nitrifying bacteria.

I hope I don't get flamed now, but my pump is one of those hang on Emperor ones with the rotating biowheels and my skimmer is a SeaClone. I don't have a deep sand bed either. That skimmer is not so good -- but on a 30 g it is ok. And I am of the school that doesn't believe in over skimming...(No worries about that with a SeaClone!!!) The biowheels work great!

I do feed heavily -- every day. But I'm pretty careful to see that it all gets eaten. I don't just dump the food in the tank. For the filter feeders, I dissolve the food in a little tank water , and feed target feed with plastic tubing.

Also, if I get a little algae "bloom" I try to let it die out on its own rather than going in and plucking it immediately.

Whatever you do-- Don't skimp on the lighting!!!

Hope this answers some of your questions.

Callum, the trouble an expense you are talking about going to -- maybe a 55 g tank would be better -- not that much more expensive -- but definitely better!

[Wolverine]

When we first started our reef we had looked into doing a plenum. They were much more popular at the time, and DSB was just starting to gain popularity. We concluded that a plenum was not worth it.

One problem is that you can get some REALLY dead spots underneath the plenum. For denitrifying, you want areas that are hypoxic (low in oxygen), but not areas that are anoxic (no oxygen). If you get anoxic areas, you'll start to get hydrogen sulfide formed. What can happen is that this hydrogen sulfide will build up in that spot, and can then push it's way as a bubble up through the sand bed and pop out into the tank. Unfortunately, this is pretty toxic to everything alive in there. When we were looking at this option, I talked to several people who had lost EVERYTHING because of this problem. That's a risk I don't like. This can also happen with a DSB, but it seems that with DSB, if you have enough life going through it, the critters keep stirring things around, and you don't build up the completely anoxic dead spots, and don't have this happen as often.

The next problem is effort. A plenum basically ends up being a little raised platform, that you've either put together or bought, that's covered with several inches of sand. A deep sand bed is several inches of sand. To me, that makes the DSB a more sensible option. It's cheaper, because you don't have to pay for the materials for the plenum. It's easier, because you don't have to spend the time putting together or setting up the plenum. It gives you all of the same benefits, with less risk. Also, depending on how handy you are, a plenum can collapse. If that happens, you've wasted all that effort anyway.

As for the 29g, it's often better for someone who's beginning in reefing to go with a slightly larger tank. Often the biggest early problem for someone getting into this hobby is stability. The more water volume you have, the more stable your parameters will be. The more stable it is, the better for your animals. You'll find that a lot of animals can live in pretty putrid conditions as long as they get their slowly (I'm not recommending this, but it can be done). But if it's quick, they can't tolerate nearly as much. I personally think that 55-75 is best for a beginner. It's not so big that it's a waste of money, but it's big enough to be a little more forgiving than a 20g or 29g.

Dave

[piercho]

You are going to find opinions from all over the map on DSBs. Most of these opinions have no basis in science.

Dr. Ron Shimek has written the book on DSBs, and his opinions are definately based in science. Follow this link to a description of DSBs on his web page
:http://www.rshimek.com/reef/sediment.htm

Here is where Reef Central archives threads on DSBs and refugiums:
http://www.reefcentral.com/vbulletin/forumdisplay.php?s=&forumid=23

I use a 5" DSB per Dr. Ron's perscription. I used very fine natural sand, not aragonite or crushed coral. You can infuse your sand with the macro and microscopic creatures that will make it function better with kits from Indo-Pacific Sea Farms (IPSF) or Inland Aquatics. I used IPSF and recommend them.

Good luck to you.

[billsreef]

I've set up tanks using both Jaubert's method and DSB's as recomended by Dr. Ron and Rob Toonen. Both methods when done correctly work well, with the edge going to the DSB. Also a DSB is simpler to set up, just pour in the sand, add some live sand and detritivores (a plenum system will also benifit from LS and detritivores) and your done ;)