As this thread continues, remember we're not calling out anyone that runs a detritus capturing system. That's every reef that ever came from a 90s reefer, ya'll have the majority. we all started that way, we're all detritus capturers until something makes us change. either nitrate readings, or the countless posts online of nitrate problems that were mitigated by going bare bottom, or by stirring as prevention, or by rip cleaning the whole bed as I do. some opt of of sandbedding through careful planning and research.
hands off sandbedding is a niche practice now, fiercely guarded agreed.
any system that has a large crash or fish loss event resulting from hardware failture/delay time until fixed/cannot eliminate detritus as a contributing factor for the BOD during the duress event and systemic reasons listed prior, im sure the impacts range system to system and are closely tied to other variables we could only guess about. in my opinion the massive amount of competing mixed heterotrophic bacteria that are famed in heavy detritus loading will contribute largely to loss cascades as soon as the O2 balances they're used to get depleted. detritus in the challenged reef is harmful compared to a low organic reserves comparative tank.
we're simply building in a bit more safety redundancy in the cleaner systems, for the masses to have (and report back) success, better statistics when 100 tanks are sampled after 5 years, yep.
We have retail feeds and dosers that run cleaner and specific to certain nutrients vs the detritus to me its not downing the old system at all, there's much to be said about earning the ideal balance Scott mentioned. in order to work on wrecked and invaded tanks, I need the beds clean first.
in order to crank out mass nanos, we need the cleaner approach vs the old school one, just trends coming and going and this is the current wave.
in order to move a tank and skip cycle it, one must not move the detritus unless going on pure luck is the goal.
99% of any reef setup on this board, track it, over the next five years, after five years, will not have an amazing sandbed full of worms and moving animals which would be astounding. if dredge sampled, their bed will be six gammarids, three unidentified worms, a brittle star, and pure invasion fuel mud.
You have to farm a sandbed into the stuff marine studies are based on, our tanks don't have that destiny and frankly that's a bunch of bioload contribution Im not sure Id want it compared to other forms of bed arrangement. people online have been sending me sandbed pics for about ten yrs straight, nothing fancy, ever.
just mud
I bet a plenum system is more efficient than just the piles of straight sand we use.
anyone who can refresh a system with high volumes of these pods to even approach a natural balance is a 1% reefer.
