DSB Questions & Concerns

[Tarek]

Hello, everyone. I've just setup my DSB in my new 72-gal tank. It's about 4.5", consisting of 30 lb. of CaribSea aragonite and 150 lb. of SouthDown tropical playsand. For now, I plan on setting this tank up as a FOWLR. I've been looking around on IPSF and Inland Aquatics at some LS-seeding detrivore kits. Considering the fact that I plan on stocking this tank with (among other fish) a trigger and a puffer, would it make sense to invest in such a LS-seeding kit? Seeing as how these kits consist of various worms, micro-shrimp/hermits, miniature brittle stars, etc., won't these just wind up as really expensive fish food? Is there any point to trying to seed an LS bed in a tank that has predatory fish, or should I just leave it to bacteria colonies and amphipods to migrate over from the LR?

Also, I did not rinse the sand before adding it to the tank, as I've read that this washes away the smaller sand particles that are benefitial to the denitrification process. After letting the tank stand for almost a full day, the water still hasn't cleared completely, and there's a very fine layer of silt over the sand that gets stirred up very easily. Should I go ahead and vaccuum this up?

Would there be a problem in starting to add my old LR from my old tank now to help kickstart the cycling, or should I wait until sometime later?

Thanks!
-Tarek

[deanp]

Hi

I'm about to do the same thing, 135g FOWLR with a DSB and plan on getting the same type of fish. I plan on putting eggcrate down about 1" below the surface to act as a barrier from the fish. I've posted the suggestion on a few boards but nobody has posted that they have done something similiar. I also plan on setting up a small refugium which hopefully help with the pod, etc population

Good Luck!!!

[Abet]

Hi,
I have a 180 FOWLR that I had setup over a month with a 5" DSB of unrinsed SD and I have stirred up the sand a couple of times rearranging LR and it does cloud up a bit but it settles down within a couple of minutes.
Regarding your Detrivores, if you give them time and live rocks to settle and establish a fluorishing population in your tank, I think that they could still handle a predatory fish or two.
If this really concerns you, have you thought of adding a refugium in your system.
Also, I'll go ahead and add that LR to help cycle your tank

[Neal359]

personaly i wouldnt set up a dsb for a folr tank for what reason??? nitrates ar not going to be a big problem i would probalby speend the extra $$$ on a realy good skimmer. i have seen tanks with large fish having nitrate levels in the uper 50ppm with no bad evexcts

[Tarek]

Abet-
My concern with adding the LR now is that it would help the cycling, but would do so at the expense of die-off from the LR (my LR is very well established, and I'd hate to lose anything on it for the benefits I could achieve by tossing some frozen shrimp into the tank). Do you think this is a valid concern, and that I should wait till the cycling's complete, or just go ahead with it anyway? If so, at what point do I put it in?

Neal-
I would think that a tank that primarily houses fish (particularly messy eaters, which I plan on keeping) and not reef organisms would require the most nitrate processing filtration? I already have a good skimmer, and plan on using caulerpa for additional nitrate export (I'm in the process of hooking up an EcoSystem filter), along with a DSB. My older tank had a 1-1.5" crushed coral substrate, and while nitrates weren't too bad of a problem, they were around in sufficient quantity as to give me some probs w/nuisance algaes. Am I wrong, and DSBs have no practical application outside reef systems?

-Tarek

[Abet]

Hello Tarek,
Your concerns are valid, I did not want to have any die-offs from my LR either. I did not spend a lot of money for LR just to kill its critters, so, I waited for the silt to settle down and then added 200 lbs of LR, 10 lbs of LS and a detrivore kit from Inland Aquatics. Now after a month I have a thriving population of pods and worms in the tank, enough to keep a mandarin alive and happy.
I am also planning on keeping messy eaters like Lionfish and large angels, although, I do not have any yet. But I am not installing a skimmer, instead I have a 75gl refugium with 6" DSB and caulerpa to export excess nutrients in the water and keep nitrates down. I'd like to keep my systems as natural as possible with only the basic gadgetry required