Deep Sand Bed - Should It Stay or Should It Go?

[pesto]

I have had a deep sand bed in my refugium for the past three years. The dsb is about 8" and I grow cheato. Lately, my cheato is not growing as well as it has in the past and has receded about 3/4 of what you see in the picture. I am sure I will get lots of differing opinions but, would my fuge be off with or without the dsb?

In the past, I have had issues with elevated nitrate levels but, have been more under control lately. My tank parameters are:

Nitrite = 0
Ammonia = 0
PH = 7.8
Nitrate = 5
Phosphate = .25
Carbonate Hardness = 7dKh
Calcium = 400
Salinity = 1.025
Magnesium = 1300

 

[Turbosnail]

Have you tried cleaning the acrylic top and sides. Believe it or not I had the same problem and it turned out to be the acrylic being dirty with salt creep and coralline algae. I like having the sand in the fuge.

 

[frank180reef]

I would keep the sand

maybe ur running out of nutrients in a way I think they say to seperate out the cheato although I never do

 

[pesto]

Good idea ...i'll try it!

Have you tried cleaning the acrylic top and sides.

 

[pesto]

What do you mean?

maybe ur running out of nutrients

 

[frank180reef]

I guess you had no phosphates then it wouldnt grow

 

[Turbosnail]

+1 the water may be to clean for it to grow.

 

[scjpll]

will cheato remove phosphates??????

 

[Turbosnail]

will cheato remove phosphates??????

Yes phosphates and nitrates.

 

[pesto]

Is that a good thing?

the water may be to clean for it to grow.

 

[drat]

I could not get my nitrates below 40 ppm until I removed the sand from my sump. I consider putting the dsb in my sump to be one of the biggest mistakes I made in setting up my tank. Now it is easy to siphon detritus from the sump and my nitrates are down to zero.

 

[pesto]

This is one of the things I am concerned about ...

I could not get my nitrates below 40 ppm until I removed the sand from my sump.

 

[SteveDola]

id get rid of it. i think they tend to become sinkholes after years of waste accumulation.

 

[frank180reef]

fwiw my display has had the same sand for 15-18 years. we moved 11 years ago, so maybe that flushed out some of the gunk, but still it is pretty old

 

[SteveDola]

Frank, do you clean the sand bed every once and awhile? is there good flow?

Tom, was a lot of detritus allowed to settle on that sand bed? did you ever clean the bed? I know DSBs are able to left alone but I always vacuumed the top 1/2" or so to keep up on it from becoming an issue. I dont have a DSB in my new tank...only SSB which I vacuum once and a while and have good flow over.

Im not saying DSB are bad...I had one for 4 years with no probs...I just think that if left to suck up nutrients they can become problems.

 

[frank180reef]

I just upgraded to 2 MP40s, i wouldnt say the flow is great (before) I have mostly LPS and Softies.


I seldom if ever clean the sand bed,

 

[pesto]

I have never cleaned the dsb in my fuge.

 

[Ellabug]

You really don't want to disturb a DSB, as you can hit a pocket of sulfer gas and crash your tank. Sandbeds that are 2" or so deep can be stirred a little bit at a time to remove gunk, but you can't do the same with a DSB. If you do decide to remove it, I'd pull your sump and dump everything out while it isn't connected to your DT, and then give it a very good cleaning before hooking it back up again. If your sole purpose for wanting to get rid of it is because your chaeto isn't growing, then I'd look for other reasons for your chaeto shrinking other than your DSB. What kind of flow does your chaeto get (does is get enough to tumble in the compartment that its in?), and what kind of light do you have over it? Chaeto grows best under 6500k bulbs, which you can buy at any store (just make sure you get a 6500K temp bulb, doesn't have to be anything fancy).