Shred -
Actually, I've never heard anyone say or recommend that they don't feed their tank now that they have a DSB ...most recommendations are to feed more, to support all that life.
Personally, I'm highly skeptical about the amount of food produced in the sandbed - but that's my take on it.
Diversity ... great in society - but why do I need it in my reef tank? Do the Acropora color or grow faster in the presence of a certain # of copepods? Does my Monti swirl more when there's more species of worm present? Is my BTA more bubble-tipped if it has a DSB?
To me it's more disparate creatures with differing needs. As it will never be a stable population over the long term, it will need to be replentished regularly ... and is a huge consumer of Oxygen ... that's a fair amount additional bioload just for the sandbed. Add on the critters you're not supposed to have that might eat the critters [most shrimp, crabs, some stars] ... and it becomes less of true diversity and more of a selected diversity.
Personally, I'm boggled at the nitrate boogeyman. Maybe I starve my fish or something, but post-cycle in my 58 I've never read more than low single digits in Nitrate, and under 1 ppm in the last year, with almost all my tests with `clear water' in the Salifert test.
Only had a 5" x 12" DSB in the fuge for about half this time - and for that same period about 1/2" cc/sand substrate ... but since removing it still have undetectable nitrates. Maybe my one clam helps out a bit ... but I'm confused on what the huge nitrate issue is. Yes, if you overfeed, overstock, under-export ... nitrates are a problem.
Thus it boggles me on why people are so freaked out about Nitrates, esp in a SPS tank with high flow and good skimming.
Maybe I've got a blue thumb or something, I guess ... but it seems to me that while I have no doubt that Nitrates are not good in concentration with most of our livestock ... I feel like it's been made into a big, uncontrollable problem that in a well designed/stocked/run system might not be the boogeyman it's made out to be.
Maybe we're scaring newbies with unknown issues with DSB's ... but I feel like we've also scared them to death about nitrates. Personally, we should scare them about overstocking or rushing instead ... as IMO a DSB facilitates overstocking and poor export/import balance.
-- This thread is amazing though, I've been reading along learning for the last few days ... even when I already knew it all first
