Dsb

[trillyen]

Whoever said that, lied. It is total crap



Yes, SSB is shallow sand bed



No set formula, but make sure that if a lot of fish are planned, that they are not ones that get big. The more fish, the more maintanence and the more frequent water changes required.

it seems to be a good skimmer though

im hoping

i dont think my fish will get that big, plus i have a new BIGGER tank in mind!!!

 

[trillyen]

There isn't really a specific number of fish you can or can't have in a certain size tank, as there are tons of varibles that play into what the overall bioload is, and how it is dealt with in the tank. Certain fish are going to have more of an impact on bioload than others because of their size and diet...ie predators like lionfish tend to have more of an impact than herbivores or scavengers, because more food has to be introduced initially into the system to sustain them. Many herbivores can get a portion of their nutrition from algaes in the tank which grow in response to unused nutrients already in the system, and scavengers can live off the scraps of the initial food introduction, so neither requires quite as much food introduced up front.

Cleanup crews don't really tend to count towards your bioload unless their numbers are so large or disproportionate that additional food is needed to be added to the tank to sustain them. However, be aware that even under ideal situations, the total amount of bioreduction you will see from a cleanup crew (ie nutrients burned as energy and not put back into the system as waste) is probably only about 15% of the total nutrient load in the tank.

In addtion, how you are dealing with the excess nutrients impacts how much bioload you can put in a given tank. If you are agressively skimming, running carbon, and doing frequent water changes, you can get away with a larger bioload before it becomes problematic.

The whole thing is actually quite complex, and requires a bit of dialing in on the part of the aquarist. Go slow, add bioload slow, watch the tank, and compensate when necessary....

! thing im wondering when you say run carbon, how do i do so just put it in a bag and let it sit or is there some other salt water form to take to!!!

i pretty much been researching the deb and everything ive rerad im prett prepaired for.

! thing though and its a bit off subjest but herefishyfishy mentioned that my berlin skimmer is a piece of crap, i almost agree as far as when i first poured the salt in my tank and ran the skimmer it over flowed for a while and just stopped like 2 days ago, but i like all the area it has and all the water it skims at 1 time

so with the 2 skimmers i have on my 125 would you call that aggresive skimming??

and if not what is the top of the line skimmer i can get for no ammonia worries and for a 125 gl tank???

thanks for all the help guys!!!

 

[MikeS]

Typically, you want to place granulated carbon in a mesh bag or filter sock and put it in a high flow area of your system, like a filter or outlet to your 'fuge. Carbon should be changed out regularly, I try not to go over 2 weeks or so on mine.

Keep researching DSB's, there is tons of info out there, and it's a very complex and highly debated topic...I wouldn't recommend a DSB to anybody who has just a passing knowledge of them, as proper application of one requires a reasonably in-depth understanding of how they work, and what they can and cannot do.

On the skimmer...I'll leave that answer to folks with larger tanks and skimmers...once upon a time Berlin skimmers were decent, but there are some really good ones out on the market now, all depends on how deep your pocketbook is....

 

[trillyen]

here is an idea of what i got

 

[trillyen]

ahhh ok i got it now yeah that shouldnt be to hard to add carbon in my intake to the fuge chamber that simple enough!!!

im kinda getting scard of having a dsb now man but i mean its not like i gotta clean the dsb and i plan on doing that on a regular so that in turn im hopeing will take care of the sand bed and then in turn im hoping the sand bed will take care of me

before in your opinion you said that i needed a light bio load for a deep sand bed correct, well than what else could or can i possibly add for a heavy bioload in addition to aggresive skimming and carbon and live rock and a clean up crew

wouldnt my chemical filtration be my sponges, whats the mechanical filtration the skimmer??

and isnt my lr my bio filtration???

 

[MikeS]

Yeah, DSB's are not really ideal in very high bioload situations, but if you can reduce the amount of waste and pollutants that end up in the DSB in the first place, you can effectively get away with a higher bioload.

Carbon is your chemical filtration (provides a bit of mechanical and some biological as well)....your sponges are primarily mechanical and biological....your LR is usually the bulk of your biological filtration, although a great deal of that will take place in the substrate as well. The skimmer is primarily mechanical, as is physically removes certain wastes from the water....

 

[Herefishyfishy]

http://www.reeffrontiers.com/forums/showthread.php?t=12143&highlight=berlin+skimmers

http://www.reeffrontiers.com/forums/showthread.php?t=15370&highlight=berlin+skimmers

 

[trillyen]

thanks for the links herefishy

but my berlin skimmer is working really good thus far pulling out alot of skimmate and waste because of the cycling period it is really tall and has like 3 different air chambers

but im looking into a asm and or a precision marine for my 250 to 300 gallon tank!!!

 

[dnjan]

Another comment on DSB's

Increase your bioload slowly. An important component of a functioning DSB is the associated microfauna that inhabit the DSB. And they don't reproduce as fast as bacteria. So, add a fish, wait a couple of weeks, add another, wait a couple of weeks, etc. That way your DSB will be better able to process the waste as it is produced, rather than having it accumulate and overwhelm the DSB.

 

[trillyen]

yeah that sounds more like it i think i can do that sounds simple enough..

there is a couple quarantine processes that i would like to address since my qt tank is so small and adding and buying more than 1 fish at a time!!

ill address that in a different post though.

i think im gonna have like 12 or 13 fish in my 125 gallon so the dsb will be kinda trying to keep up but im only gonna add a fish once every month.. so we will see what happens

 

[MikeS]

Add the fish that are going to put the most bioload on the system first if possible.

 

[trillyen]

ill will try but the more aggresive fish have to go in last but they will be a bit smaller than the less timid fishes!!!

 

[MikeS]

Understood, just try to work around that as best you can...