DSB Question

[LENNIE]

My tank has been up and running for almost 2 years. All levels have been great for a long time. I have never lost a fish. I started adding corals and a clam a few months ago. My dsb is 5-6 inches of southdown. The problem i'm having is the top of the dsb has stayed pristine white. I keep getting sand on my corals and rocks. So i'm having to blow them off with a turkey baster every day. I thought a film should develop to control the sandstorm. I try to give my clam and bottom corals alot of flow but it seems i just blow sand around. If i move the powerheads up i'm afraid i won't get the flow i need. Any suggestion? Sorry for the long post.

Lennie

[mightymouse]

hmm well i have one idea but im not sure if this would be easy to do with a sw tank thats already been setup i have an african cichlid tank and alot of those guys do whast called under gravel jets which is pvc pipe connected in a chain with a few moveable flare nozzells at different places and the pvc is all buried int he sand all that sticks out is the nozzles could this maybe be adapted for sw use? im not sure if you could get it in a tank already setup or not though just a thought . . .:rolleyes:

[HaKs310]

Yeah you could do it, but not in an established DSB.

[LENNIE]

anyone else? why have i not got the bacteria coating on the sand floor?

[mightymouse]

sorry i couldnt help more but that could be a nice experiment for someone setting up a tank ive never seen that done in sw b4 look on cichlid-forum.com in the diy section

[LENNIE]

what am doing wrong to get the dsb to develop a more firm surface? the deeper part looks like it should. show me some of your dsb's so i came compare.

tks lennie

[LENNIE]

By the way how high in the tank do you guys set your powerheads with a wave maker?

[tang named junkyard]

One thing that might work is using a liitle bigger grains of sand for the top. I have done this is certain high flow spots and it works well. The smaller grains always fall downward.

[LENNIE]

It may be kinda late for that

[LENNIE]

come on you experts. Is it normal for the top of the southdown dsb to stay powderdy

[LENNIE]

Ok guys you are making me feel unloved

[romunov]

Do you have a healthy inbed fauna? Meaning you got worms, crustaceans...?

[ratherbediving]

I've been subscribed to this thread for awhile, waiting for other folks to respond... I think I am running into the same problem.

I had an African cichlid tank, and I used under gravel jets. The purpose of them was really intended to keep detritus (well, fish poo) suspended in the water column, so that my canister filter or HOB filter would filter it out. I think that is a different application than what is required here.

The issue I am having is that even though my power heads are closer to the surface than the bottom of the tank, there still is enough movement such that sand continues to settle on top of the rocks, even getting into my sump (I use a micron bag, which has trapped a fair amount of sand these last couple of weeks). It sounds like LENNIE is having the same problem...

One solution might be to put a "thin" layer of sand, that was a larger grain size then the southdown then we have now, as previously mentioned. You might have to siphon off just the very top layer of sand you have now, but my understanding is that shouldn't have too much of an effect on the denitrifying bacteria further down in the sand. The two potential issues with this (that I see) are 1) could the larger sand grains (or crushed coral grains if that was used) cause clumping issues and
2) over time, will the larger grain size simply "Settle" into the sandbed, allowing the finer grains to appear at the top-- causing the problem again?

Another solution might be to have some rock, or perhaps even corals (like a brain coral or open brain) that sit right on the sandbed. This might cause the water to flow in a different pattern, such that perhaps the sand wouldn't get 'waterborn' as easily.

??? I would think this would be a big problem for a lot of us who use (or in my case, are TRYING to use) a DSB....

Thanks for listening :D

[mike89t]

I think this is the first time I have ever seen anyone complain about a clean sand bed that doesn't clump.

:fun4:

[LENNIE]

I love the way my sandbed looks. It is beautiful and white on top with some nice bacteria growth underneath. The problem is the snow getting on the corals,clams,rocks. I think it is affection my coraline algae groth. I'm not getting alot of nice purple and pink.
In answe to romunov i do not have alot of worms, just a few bristleworms but i have lots of pods, i mean alot. I have about 25 crabs, 3 bid turbo snails and 1 queen conch. What else should i add. Or should i just keep blowing of the clams and disk corals all the time.

tks Lennie

[LENNIE]

anyone else

[LENNIE]

Ok Rom, What do you suggest as a dsb cleanup crew?

[romunov]

I would suggest a kit from an online vendor. Get as many diverse animals as possible.

To give you an example, I woke up this morning to a "mess". There were some sort of webs everywhere. I suspect they are the work of polychaetes. I'm pretty sure that holds at least some of the substrate down. :)

[ratherbediving]

Is purchasing live sand a good alternative to puchasing a kit? If not--- where is a good place to buy one?

[CyanoMagnet]

If you realy want a hard sandbed (not recommended) just have a series of PH spikes, then you will need a hammer and chisel to penetrate your DSB.
On a serious note, what would be wrong with putting a thin layer of gravel size material on top of the dsb? Ive thought about it but never read about it. But it has to be a very THIN layer.

[HaKs310]

http://www.rshimek.com/reef/sediment.htm