Yup. thats what he usually says. but there is a difference from something that works, and being able to explain how it works. the biological mechanism is murky in understanding. but i have great results with them. I met Ron at his lecture on mud fauna and “bugs” at the 92? Baltimore MACNA. His degrees, area of expertise and sole interests are in all the microscopic critters and worms that make mud and bogs and fine oolithic sands work, not so much in tanks, but in the vast open wild spaces you find them . big difference on scale and ratio of mud and water. So his interest in DSBs and mud is its a medium for growing his critters. his sand is high nutrient to support his bug life. and the sand does go anerobic, and can make and contain hydrogen sulfide. which gets released when something digs into it. or the process bogs down and it juts burps out.
He is correct that one feature of a propeer plenum sand bed is it does not go anerobic, or produce hydrogen sulfide. it does process nitrates into nitrogen gas at a faster rate than the anerobic hydrogen sulfide process that works in deep fine sand beds. thats one reason i like plenums. removes the threat of old tank syndrome. Hydrogen sulfide. kind of a built in safety feature that i like.
Because of the larger grain size ofsand needed for a plenum, fewer types of worms will grow in it. but there are plenty of spaghetti worms in mine and some other strange, slow ones too. its a cleaner system, i think. anyway they work for me, better than other types of sand beds. Dont ask me why.
Thanks for the very informative explaination you two. Ken I do have a question for you though. You said, it removes the threat of old tank syndrome. My tank has been set up going on 8 years. At the start it was 0 NO3 and now my NO3 is at 10-20 PPM, before adding the bio-plastics recently. Since I was getting HA and I started testing my water for NO3. Could this high NO3 be the cause of old tank syndrome. Like you I never had any problem with plenum systems. And all my reef tanks that I’d kept has been plenum. This is the first time I have problem with it.
Rosti I hope you don’t mind me using your thread. Let me know, we can start it on another subject thread.
Well, the basic principle of the plenum sand bed is the uniform 2-4 mm grain size. this allows plentiful water space between the grains for ion migration and exchange. if we dont clean the fluff out of the sand now and then, the fines from scrubbing coraline off your glass, and carbonate particles and old waste will make a fine powder that will seep into the sandbed and fill in the spaces. kind of like a seal. then the plenum cant breath, and the sand can go anerobic, produce amonium, and sulfides and feed hair algae.
adding the biopellets is just compensating for what the dirty sand is putting out. like a fuge for a dirty fuge. i syphon vacuum mine now and then to get the mud and dust out. and then its fine again. Plenums are not maintenance free. they need some De-gunking to keep them free to breath. you can vacuum right down to the screen,. deep cleaning. it will mess with the bacteria strata for a little while, but will quickly go back into balance. thats what i do. i should do it more often. but im lazy. i have to move all the frags and stuff out to get to the sand.
Thanks for the info Ken. I guess I need to get to the back of the tank, behind the rocks and maybe blow all those accumulative fine particle out and see if the NO3 will go down a little. I do blow and rake the front half of the tank. And also get more critters for the sand bed.
yes reefman, and vacuum the sand in those back corners too. mine usually get packed with fines and detritus both on top and down in the gravel. I can suck out a bucket full of real muddy water from one low flow corner of the sand bed.
Nasos are one of my fav fish. Seeing urs makes me miss having a large tank. Had a 155bowfromt before we moved up here and had one just like this for 3 years. Very personal she was she would rub against my hand while I was in the tank.
[quote=“BigCase, post:249, topic:2892”]
Nasos are one of my fav fish. Seeing urs makes me miss having a large tank. Had a 155bowfromt before we moved up here and had one just like this for 3 years. Very personal she was she would rub against my hand while I was in the tank.[/quote]
WOW thats need.
I am reading Aquarium Husbandry Articles By Subscription Ronald L. Shimek, VOLUME 1, ISSUE 4.
One of the articles starts with “I think the best way to manage and maintain a coral reef or marine aquarium of any sort is to consider that it is a “microcosm,†or a miniature version of the real world.” An Introduction To Reef Aquaria As Artificial Ecosystems.
By
Ronald L. Shimek, Ph. D.
to me this is what this hobby is all about. Amazing how few words can mean so much.
“THE most important component of a coral reef aquarium is a deep sand bed.”
To each their own, but I completely disagree. I’ve never ever ran one and I think I’ve done alright with out them. I also think you and Ken know what you are doing and both have a lot of background and understanding beyond the average hobbyist. A deep sand bed can spell disaster if you don’t know what you are doing and sometimes can occur even if you do know what you are doing.
Just thought I’d put my two cents in. Again Ken and Rosti both do very well with their sandbeds, but also pay attention to a slew of other details and are both very hands on hobbyist.
