Help! Is my sand bed dying?

[Wiz]

No. Mine is side by side piped into the same sump. its my opinion that most people do not do the dsb properly which is why they say it doesnt work. Ignorance is horrable. The worst part is they dont even know. Lol but for me it works great. I have attention for detail and a bit of ocd. Mine is also made according to shimeks instruction. As long as you keep it that way it should be fine. So if you keep it, no sand sifters! Or anything that will eat your fauna or disturb the lower layers of sand. Other than worms. And be careful whos advice you take. Like the guy earlier in this thread saying to get a star or goby. Im sure he meant well.and if you just skim the article its easy to make that mistake. You have to be thorough. :-D gl

So your DSB is not in your display? And it's not that I don't trust it. I believe I have set it up correctly so far according to the research I have done including reading Ron Shimek's book on DSB's. It's more a question of reading many comments and seeing so few DSB's in DT's I am trying to decide if I should proceed or not? I figure my tank is new enough now is the time to do it if I'm going to. But I really hate the thought of messing with my rock work because I have it just how I want it. My tank is a 60 cube and I'm running an icecap k2 protein skimmer rated for up to 120 as well as a BRS mini media reactor with carbon and GFO. Also have a sump with fuge going with some acro and an emperor aquatics 25 watt UV sterilizer so I think my system should be good to go as far as nutrients regardless which way I go? Thanks for the replies!

 

[ReefQueen]

I am curious, what everyone considers a deep sand bed in inches? What is the minimum that you would consider too deep to disturb? I always did shallow sand beds due to not wanting to worry about accidentally disturbing the sand and crashing my tank, and I am still paranoid to mess with it too much lol.

 

[Wiz]

I am curious, what everyone considers a deep sand bed in inches? What is the minimum that you would consider too deep to disturb? I always did shallow sand beds due to not wanting to worry about accidentally disturbing the sand and crashing my tank, and I am still paranoid to mess with it too much lol.

I would say minimum 4"

 

[themadman]

I am curious, what everyone considers a deep sand bed in inches? What is the minimum that you would consider too deep to disturb? I always did shallow sand beds due to not wanting to worry about accidentally disturbing the sand and crashing my tank, and I am still paranoid to mess with it too much lol.

Everything I have read says it must be 4" minimum. And a SSB must be less than 2". Anything in-between is no-mans land I've read and can cause issues.

 

[ReefQueen]

I would say minimum 4"

Oh, I am way off then lol. I was expecting 3 inches at the most lol. 4 inches seems like way too much for this shallow loving girl I mean sandbeds, not men haha.

 

[ReefQueen]

Everything I have read says it must be 4" minimum. And a SSB must be less than 2". Anything in-between is no-mans land I've read and can cause issues.

Now that you mention it in do recall reading that years ago. So I will be fine to add another 1/2" to mine since it is only around an 1" now.

 

[saltyfilmfolks]

So your DSB is not in your display? And it's not that I don't trust it. I believe I have set it up correctly so far according to the research I have done including reading Ron Shimek's book on DSB's. It's more a question of reading many comments and seeing so few DSB's in DT's I am trying to decide if I should proceed or not? I figure my tank is new enough now is the time to do it if I'm going to. But I really hate the thought of messing with my rock work because I have it just how I want it. My tank is a 60 cube and I'm running an icecap k2 protein skimmer rated for up to 120 as well as a BRS mini media reactor with carbon and GFO. Also have a sump with fuge going with some acro and an emperor aquatics 25 watt UV sterilizer so I think my system should be good to go as far as nutrients regardless which way I go? Thanks for the replies!

So you know. My 30 cube is SPS and Dsb w hang on fuge w 9001 skimmer.
Jus sayin
My 55 has a two year old DSB plenty of bugs in the lower oolite Dsb in the fuge too and underrated 9002 tunze. W 75 total water vol nothing else. No problems.
A Dsb is as likely to crash your tank as making it unstable by using reactors and or overskiming probably less. Cuz a Dsb doesn't just stop when unplugged or overfilled with media.

Might be overthinking Dsb.