how do you feel about plenums?

[ScottT1980]

yea but that in itself is not a guarrantee of any kind that you can make a system work.

I am not sure I follow where you are going (or to what you are reffering). Are you reffering to innate limitations of the system itself? Hobbiest error? What is going on in that head of yours Mike

Take er easy
Scott T.

 

[bubba654]

No he isn't a grocery guy He is the owner of tropicorium in south michigan thousands of gal of corals I think the link is tropicorum.com

 

[mojoreef]

I know he is not Bubba I was just joking around with you. Dicks systems have been up and running for a long time. Truely one of the best in the country.

LOL Scott you are starting to know me to well. When your dealing with mechcanical is easy to now the path, but when your dealing with biological processes your really at the mercy of mother nature. Charles Delbeek did a 5 year study on the Jeaubert system in Monaco and one of the findings was the high presence of ammonia through out the plenum. the plenum was designed very well (by the inventor) maintained religiuosly and put on a very low bioload. yet that presence of ammonia shut down the whole denitrification process.

stuff like that


Mike

 

[MarineDreamer]

I'm not sure, but wasn't it also open to the sea? I think that I read that somewhere.

Trevor

 

[MarineDreamer]

I found it!

“In addition, some of the Monaco systems have the benefit of being partially open to the Mediterranean Sea with significant water changes regularly taking place.”

Fenner, Robert. 1998 The Conscientious Marine Aquarist Microcosm Lt. Charlotte VT. Pgs. 74 &75

Score one for the Newbie and his ability to read!

 

[jeffsreefdotcom]

Hey everyone -

Thanks for all the insight. I didn't think this thread would be so popular.

Anyway, this weekend I did in fact do a 99% water change and decided to pull the plenum and sand. I'm officially bare bottom. Anyway, there was so much crap in the sand and plenum for having hardly any bioload and being set up for less than a year. I guess it came from basically killing the LR with the low temps and high salinity. If you want to read the story, you can check this thread .

Well, the rock is in a lot worse shape than I thought. The water looks pretty good, but I'm going to give it a week to stabalize, and then test the parameters. I'm going to seed it with some scrapings from some good rock and add some clean up critters because I'm already seeing some algae growth. Other than that, the only thing wrong is my tank has "pile of rocks syndrome."

This is going to be a lot of work, but it will be that much more rewarding when it's ready for critters.

 

[jeffsreefdotcom]

another

 

[jeffsreefdotcom]

I continued that thread here: http://www.thereeftank.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&postid=250153#post250153


here it is tonight

 

[Llarian]

So what takes its place?

Hi, newbie/lurker gathering info for building up a tank in the next year or so.

What I'm curious about is what accomplishes the Nitrate->N2 gas step without a DSB or Plenum? Would that leave on uptake and/or nutrient export to remove it from the system entirely since there would no longer be an anaerobic reaction happening in the tank?

I prefer the bare-bottom look (HAH!), but most of my reading has suggested that either a plenum or DSB is much more stable. I'm definitely interested in some enlightenment on this point.

-Dylan

 

[NaH2O]

yea but that in itself is not a guarrantee of any kind that you can make a system work

True, my point (which I know is difficult to see sometimes ) was that depending on what your husbandry is - a person could potentially make the system last for a longer period of time. I'm not saying that the system would, but it could. There is no argument from me about DSB or plenum being self limiting.

Llarian, WELCOME TO REEF FRONTIERS! Your first post and you picked a great topic ! In answer to your question, the denitrifying bacteria are all over the tank, not just present in the substrate. The live rock you put in your tank is porous, therefore, has a lot of surface area for bacteria to do their thing. Does that help? I fear it is too early in the morning for my brain...lol.

 

[Scooterman]

jeffsreefdotcom,

I can't believe how clean a tanks looks as compared to 4 or 6 inches of sand, not to mention the extra room you get. It is easy to cover the bare space up front and still get that natural look, it just takes a little more planning.

 

[NaH2O]

Oh I forgot to mention (you know it's early )...the LR performs in the same manner, only on a smaller scale. The sand bed functions as a sink, so it is limited by the bottom of the tank. The LR isn't limited as to where the end products go. Does that make sense? I hope I'm not confusing things more...

Here is a good thread:
Remove SandBed?

 

[jeffsreefdotcom]

Yeah, I plan on adding a little aragonite in the front and in the areas you can see. I'm intereseted to see how much the spray bar I constructed will blow the sand around. I figure if I put less than an inch in, I can stir it around every now and then and even vaccuum it out if need be.

Nikki-

it made sense to me.

 

[Llarian]

Ah, that makes sense. I didn't know there was the anaerobic environment required for denitirification present in the LR as well as a DSB.

-Dylan

 

[fishermann]

jeff i would use crushed coral so you can vac it regularly and your spray bar shouldn't move it around and being courser your spray bar mite get more flow through it to help keep stuff in suspension.

 

[jeffsreefdotcom]

I usually use this stuff:
http://www.marinedepot.com/md_viewItem.asp?idproduct=CS0020

Are you suggesting something with a larger grain size?

 

[fishermann]

Jeff i use nothing other than some reef rubble pieces and old shells and let the corraline coat the glass, i just thought maybe the courser the better. The crushed coral i have seen in bags in the stores look to be even courser then yours, I just wanted to throw it out there, i would think the more course, the more flow you would get from your spray bar through it in between vacs.

 

[NaH2O]

IMO, the problem with having crushed coral is the tendency to trap detritus, which would eventually lead to nitrate issues. You might be able to be diligent enough to prevent build up, but it would be something to watch. Good thought, though, having the spray bar with the CC substrate...hmmmm - I guess if the flow was right, nothing would settle? Anyone else have ideas?

 

[mojoreef]

oh it will settle, lol. you just have to keep up the husbandry on cleaning/syphoning. it will let you know when its done or when its time. Jeff I went with a bit of cc, for about a year, thats how long it lasted till it was time to clean it out. since then just straight BB. its covered now by layer upon layer of corraline algae. I kinda like the look, so do the bugs, they hide inbetween the layers.


Mike

 

[Ghosty]

I continued that thread here: http://www.thereeftank.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&postid=250153#post250153


here it is tonight

Jeff, roughly how many pounds of LR do you have here in your picture?