Who is running a shallow sand bed?

[Moe_K]

I've heard that Rob Toonen said at MACNA XVI that shallow sand beds (which I take to mean a dusting to 3 inches of sand) will work (in combination with LR) to handle our nitrate conversion.
So I thought I'd ask, who's now using a SSB, and what is your nitrate level?

 

[dpnshnks]

I'm on the upper side of that shallow sand bed, with probably 2.5-3 inches of sand along with 130-140lbs of LR in a 90 gallon. My nitrates are running at about 20 now with monthly 30% water changes and a heavy fish load (that only gets heavier as the fish do ). I'm pretty sure I could cut the nitrates further if I remove the media from my canister filter. As soon as i get a free minute, the Eheim is becoming a glorified pump!

Eric

 

[starrfish]

I'm running a shallow sandbed - about an inch. But nitrates run high because I don't have a fuge or sump. I do daily 5% water changes to keep the nitrates at 10 or under. I was at Toonen's talk, and his test results indicated that the denitrification process was no different between shallow and deep sandbeds. I'm going 3" in my new tank.

 

[stevenp]

Moe,
I have approximately 1.5" of sand. Though my tank is only a 20 gallon high (24/12/16), I have never seen my nitrates, nitrides and ammonia rise above zero in the 8 months the tank has been up. I have at least 25 lbs of LR and do a 10% water change weekly. I'm not sure if the weekly water change is required to keep everything at zero since I've never done otherwise.

So does this mean that you're finally setting up your tank?

Steve

 

[~Flighty~]

about an inch in the display and around 8" in the fuge. never see trates

 

[Clam Man]

1.5 sand bed
nitrate 0
tons of pods in overflow and sump
no fuge keeping it simple
tank is adout 3yrs old

 

[NateHanson]

I've got a 2-3 inch SSB in the display, and a 6 inch DSB in the fuge. The tank is 6 months old, and nitrates have always been zero, but I have to admit I haven't checked in about 2 months.

 

[Kevin McG]

I have a 3" SSB and there no traces of nitrites.

 

[delta]

i run 1-2 inch in my tanks and never have any nitrate issues
0ppm

 

[Reef55]

the studies on depth of bed correlating to the ability to process nitrates is highly dependent on the size of the sand grains. The larger the grain, the deeper the bed needed, and vice-versa.

 

[nunofs]

I have a 2-to-3" sandbed (Southdown) and my nitrates are currently 0 (have been between 0.2 and 0.5 up until a month or so ago). I have a small refugium with chaeto.

Nuno

 

[dz6t]

My SPS tank has a very thin sand bed, less than 1/4 inch. No nitrate. I do have a hang on refugium.

 

[Member No. 1]

No sand, No Fuge, No Trates! Bare Bottom, High Flow.

But I only have 2 fish in my Coral Tank!
Fish are so over rated!

 

[starrfish]

Fish are so over rated!

BLASPHEMY!!!

 

[Jill & Brian]

We have a 1.5 - 3 inch sand bed depending where my sleeper gobie piles and digs. No detectable nitrates since I removed the bio balls from the wet/dry and made it a sump only.

No fuge either.
-Brian

 

[Armando]

Fish are so over rated!

agree. i'm still planning to one day have a fishless system.