My opinion about DSB

[Minh Nguyen]

For me, I love my DSB. I can keep very delicate corals like Goniopora and grow SPS very quickly. I add a huge amount of Ca to my tank to support my coral growth and my corals are growing out of the tank. My fish are all doing well and breeding the tank. My Banggai cardinal even grew up and mature in my overflow box without me feeding it.
DSB is very efficient at handling Nitrogenous waste. In keeping Marine tanks, I never have undetectable nitrates without a DSB, and never have detectable Nitrates with a DSB. It also provides lots of live food for my tank animals. I got a deep, deep sand bed that is about 6 inch in my sump and average about 10 inch in my tank. The surface area is 34X96 in the tank and 18X48 in the sump. I did seed it very well from many tanks and about 20 gallons of deed mud from the Corpus Christi bay.
I do know the limitation of the sand bed and deal with it accordingly. I change water 25% every 2-3 months (120 gallons). I have three 65 g Rubber maids to mix the water. I have another RO system in my garage to get the RO water needed. I grow lots of algae, mangroves, and sea grasses in my sump. I light my sump with two 250 W MH and harvest the macro algae very regular. I know that what going to the tank got to come out in order to balance the tank. I got a large skimmer for my tank also. The way I think about it, I got to take the same amount of Biomass out of the system as I out into it or very close to it.
My DSB work well for me. If I have to change the DSB out every 20 years, then I will. I don't see evidence that my DSB is causing problem for my tank. I know that my coral are doing great and will keep my DSB until my experiences tell me otherwise.
The important point here is that our tank, as a close system needs to have balance. We cannot add thing into it forever without removing it and expect it to stay in balance. One need to know that the DSB does not export phosphorous well and we as aquarium keeper need to deal with it. I keep my deep sand bed, not because I think it will last forever, unless I have method to remove the phosphorous from the tank. I keep it because I can have much higher biomass density in my tank with it and thus can keep delicate, hard to keep animals.

In living organisms Nitrogen, Phosphorous, and Potassium are there of the most important elements beside Carbon, Hydrogen and Oxygen. Of these phosphorous is the only one that we cannot get rid of automatically in a aquarium with DSB. One just has to have other method of export the phosphorous from the tank. As I export phosphorous from my tank by various mean, I also get rid of the micronutrient like trace element and keep them from get to toxic level in my tank. I also do not intentionally add these trace elements (Iodine, Strontium, trace element soup etc.) in to my tank.
There have been many DSB bashing lately. IMO, that DSB is a very successful method of keeping aquarium. But it is not a magical way to keep your aquarium in balance. It just helps me to keep my animal thriving. It keeps the conditions of my tank much close to nature. That is why I use DSB in my aquarium.
Minh

[Ninong]

Minh,

How are things coming along? Have you started setting up your tank again? It would be great if you would open up a thread dedicated to your new tank setup similar to what I started on mine. I know you don't have much free time for that but even if you just posted something every couple of weeks it would be exciting to all of us who only dream about mega tanks like yours.

Good luck,

[Ninong]

Minh,

You may find this website interesting: http://www7.ocn.ne.jp/~uchiura/

It's in Japanese, so you will probably have to use a translation program such as http://babelfish.altavista.com/

That beautiful 2400 liter (630-gal) tank has a DSB that ranges from 25 cm (10") in the front to 10 cm (4") in the back to create the illusion of depth. Notice that the surface of the sand bed is several inches below the acrylic viewing panes. That tank has only been set up for a couple of years now but his previous 2400 liter tank was set up for more than 15 years with a DSB. The guy is 53 years old and he has been keeping reeftanks for 31 years. He drives 5 hours to collect his own natural seawater. He collects all of his own live sand, live rock, corals, fish, etc. He even uses the ocean as a growout tank for his frags! He refers to his substrate as "powder coral sand." He bought a 48-passenger bus and had it converted to an RV for his diving/camping trips to the coast.

His website is quite extensive, you just have to follow all the links. He even has a saltwater-freshwater paludarium tank. It is an island with terrestrial plants and a running freshwater stream with waterfall surrounded by a saltwater sea with marine fish.

It was difficult for me to figure out exactly how the DSB on the 2400 liter tank was set up using Babelfish's translation, so I asked Tomoko Shum on RC to explain it to me since she speaks Japanese.

[Minh Nguyen]

Thanks Ninong. I saw the page. I have ot examine it in detail but I have look at it.
I will try to post pictures of my tank, once I finish with everything befor I fill it with salt water. There is no way I can document everything as extensive as you have but I will try to show my equibments and reason I choose them. What I hope it will do for my tank.
Minh

[Ninong]

Just remember the old saying: A picture is worth a thousand words.

[MontanaRocknReefer]

We have had alot of discussions about DSB on another forum and it seems to be alot of people are going away from them now! They are having remote sandbeds and very little sand or rubble in their main tank now!

I also like my DSB which ranges from 4" to 6" in my 80 gallon reef aquarium. I have had it for 21/2 years now and my tank has not crashed and everything is doing just fine. It gives the reef a very natural look and I think that is what we all want in creating a reef! I have critters that stir the sand like nassarius snails and sand star and replenish it with fauna kits now and then and at this point see no reason to change what works for me! Johnny