Some BB questions for you....

[MikeS]

Hi all

As many of you know, a series of events led to the moving of my reef about 6 weeks ago, and removing my 5 year old DSB in favor of a BB system until I move the tank contents to the larger tank....

So far so good, better transition than I had hoped....no coral losses, no algae at all (which actually suprises me)....only casuality has been my Fiji blue devil...(which I place the blame entirely on Nikki BTW....:lol: )....

I have a question about detritus in a BB system...I have a very low bioload, and the LR shed has been pretty low also....but what detritus finds its way to the bottom of the tank seems to stay there....almost as if it was cemented. Not even a direct blast from a powerhead will loosen it all, some still remains. I'm guessing it's a "biogoo" thing....sort of glues it to the bottom....any insight on this?

MikeS

 

[mojoreef]

Thier are two main things one finds on the bottom of BB tanks, one of coarse is detritus and the other is sand or rock particles. Lots of critters bore through the rock, from worms to sponges right up to urchins, In my case at least 50% of the stuff on the bottom is this particulate. Mixed together with detritus and the bacteria and their biofilm and enymes it causes the stuff to melt and/or be fused at times if left to long. If you just give it a bump it usually comes off pretty easy after that.


Mike

 

[Scooterman]

Yea remove the bottom glass so it wont build up
When I'd vacuum I would suck it out the tank that is the first place I go with the hose, you may need to scrape it off the bottom every now & then.

 

[MikeS]

Thanks guys...

Mixed together with detritus and the bacteria and their biofilm and enymes it causes the stuff to melt and/or be fused at times if left to long. If you just give it a bump it usually comes off pretty easy after that.
Mike

Could this be an indicator that I don't have enough flow across the bottom of the tank? I'm already guessing I don't....the move was hasty, and I positioned 3 large powerheads at the bottom of the tank to try to keep the particulate matter in suspention....

This seems to occur everywhere on the bottom of the tank....the only exceptions are the areas directly in front of the powerheads....

MikeS

 

[mojoreef]

Sounds like a bit of lack of flow, hows the corraline algae doing down thier.


MIke

 

[MikeS]

not much coralline growth anywhere yet...but I suspected as much in the new system...it's only now starting to grow back on the back of the tank in small patches....and with my light setup, coralline has never seemed to thrive in surfaces exposed to direct light, like the top of rocks (now the bottom of the tank.... )....Mg is fine, but my Ca and alk are in a bit of flux...been chasing them back and forth...no doubt a result of the sudden loss of the sandbed IMO....

MikeS

 

[Krish]

Mike...Are you still the "Dark Lord of th Sand", or are you oing to keep the tank BB?

 

[ldrhawke]

Mike,

On the negative side, with BB I think you will find your softie growth may slow down. They do like the nutrients they get from a DSB better.

Keeping the bottom clean is a matter flow. I suggest setting up a high flow pulse recirculation system, with as high flow as a full turn over per minute, that only runs periodically for a short period of time.

I direct my flow from the top directly to the bottom in two spots on my 30" deep tank. The periodic high flow rate every few hours for ten minutes causes a storm and puts everything into suspension. Five minutes after the storm the tank is crystal clear again. Only doing it on a periodic basis eliminates the small eddy current pockets of waste that normally develop on the bottom when you have a continous flow pattern.

The way I have it set up, it does a great job for me of keeping little to no waste from collecting on the bottom and eliminating it from the system. I have photos on my site.

 

[spongebob lover]

well i'm really not an expert on this dood, sorry i'm still learning about bb and dsb.
But how about adding a little bit of eggcrate in there?

 

[Scooterman]

well I'm really not an expert on this dood, sorry i'm still learning about bb and dsb.
But how about adding a little bit of eggcrate in there?

Can you explain that some?

 

[spongebob lover]

well i was thinking that maybe if you have the rocks laying on the eggcrate would help so you don't get detritus at the bottom of the tank, but then i don't know if that would work, like i said i'm still learning about bb Scooter dood

 

[Scooterman]

No problem, I just wanted to understand what you meant, IMO I'd think the problem would be more because of so many little squares collecting stuff, it would be harder to bow away the waste right?

 

[jetaero]

or you could put pipes under the eggcrate hooked up to powerheads

-Josh-

 

[spongebob lover]

yeah after thinking it, i thought the same thing no matter what you would end up with something in the little squares.
i wish there was something that could just hold the rocks and would let the flow go through

 

[spongebob lover]

or you could put pipes under the eggcrate hooked up to powerheads

hey that sounds like a good idea dood.

 

[MikeS]

Mike...Are you still the "Dark Lord of th Sand", or are you oing to keep the tank BB?

The tank will be BB until I upgrade to the larger tank....in the larger tank, I'm doing a plumbed plenum system with a coarse crushed LR substrate over it...Mojo and others here have been helping me engineer the specifics of it for awhile now...at this point, however, I doubt I'll have it ready before springtime...


On the eggcrate...I think that will only furter trap detritus, as it will shelter it from flow...

MikeS

 

[fishermann]

I have my whole reef sitting on black eggcrate except for the outside rocks which cover the edge of the eggcrate and those have pointed areas on them and that is where they sit on. The egg crate sits on 3/4 pvc legs that I cut a cross in one end and on a trim saw cut 2 45's on the other end so just 2 points are sitting on the tank bottom. I cut the legs about 2" long, so when you set the eggcrate into the legs it is about 1 1/2" off the bottom. I run a 1 1/2" spray bar acroos the back and blow all detritus forward, some of the heavier stuff I just vac out every couple days into a sock in the sump, takes about 5 mins.
I agree with MoJo that I thinf you need more flow.

 

[pete polyp]

i belive it depends entirely on the rock.....i have had some that didnt make anything....the last batch of uncured fiji i recived made alot of "dust".....so much it covered my DSB...so no probably no matter what you do will stop it.....Directing the flow to "stir" it up will probably do well if you are using a filter of some sort (HOB or Canister)

 

[sherm71tank]

Mike,

On the negative side, with BB I think you will find your softie growth may slow down. They do like the nutrients they get from a DSB better.

QUOTE]


I agree with that 100%. Since I went BB my shrooms and kenya corals have all but disappeared. But so did all my HA. I think I can live with that.

 

[Krish]

The tank will be BB until I upgrade to the larger tank....in the larger tank, I'm doing a plumbed plenum system with a coarse crushed LR substrate over it...Mojo and others here have been helping me engineer the specifics of it for awhile now...at this point, however, I doubt I'll have it ready before springtime...

Sounds good...