remote deep sandbed

i'm intrested in adding a remote dsb to my system. I currently have a 90 gallon display (barebottom). I have a 20 gallon tank and the sand and several pumps, just curious on ideas on how to incorp into my system. the sand came out of the 90 about 6 monthes ago and is dry. any ideas are welcome and thanks in advance

 

Is the tank drilled?

 

not drilled, ex overflow

 

IME the ammount of DSB you would add really is not worth the risks inherent to them. The ammount of Denitrification that would be achieved is not worth the risk of one fouling and causing a tank crash.IMO Unless you are planing a huge area of DSB you are better off running another form of Nutrient export.

 

Vinny I'm not disagreeing with you, but after seeing what this guy has done with DSB's and Mangroves, it's pretty amazing. He runs 11 or 13+ tanks without a skimmer and keeps his remote sand bed at 10" deep.

Check it out, very informative. DSB Advantages Explored

 

Absolutely. If you have a huge area to devote to them they can be great natural filtration. Large is the key word. A small one like theO.P. is planning is just not going to be enough to filter the ammount of water in his system.

 

I think anyone serious in this hobby should consider running something like that in their garage or in an insulated storage shed. Just seems like a nearly maintenance free and super amazing filtration system and witt the costs of huge skimmers I feel like it'd be worth the investment.

Vinny: What would you advise the OP then? Upgrade skimmer and just forget about the DSB? I've seen bad sandbeds crash tanks before and I know after adding 40lb of aragonite to my 29g + fuge, it just clouded the water for a long week, but I feel like it's going to help in my tank( I haven't been doing this long enough so I'm still experimenting)

lukabrasi: I feel like you should invest in a larger tank for you're 90's fuge. I've seen great deals on 40g Breeders and 55gs. This would give you a lot more water volume and room to work with. Also the added height would make it much easier to add a 6-8" DSB if you still wanted - As the poster on http://saltwatercorrect.com/ says, "no beneficial additions from sandbeds deeper than 10"

If you want to use the 20g why not just make a DIY overflow or pick one up on Marinedepot.com then you can just run water to your 20g and you can just keep that tank "dirty" w/ algae, but I would still agree w/ vinny. It's going to eventually become really gross and need to be replaced annually give or take a month or two

 

I personally haven't used a DSB because I felt if it wasn't big enough to filter the water in my system I would rather not risk it crashing. If you keep them stocked with the right microfauna it is possible for them to last forever. Unfortunately this requires continually adding them because some critters will die off while others will multiply. Hard to keep a good balance in our closed systems. I know my skimmer will work!!lol

 

But does a skimmer offer biological filtration or does it just remove waste? Is there a difference? Lol

soz not trying to steal OP

 

Well like all surfaces in your tank the walls of the skimmer do in fact add to the biological filter.