plennum

[sly fox]

does anyone use a plennum? is it worth doing or not worth the hassle?
thanks
:)

[SoLiD]

When I first set up my tank I was wondering the same thing. In about 2 years, I still haven't meet anybody with a plennum set up. I guess they are not popular down here.

[phrog]

Plenty of info on GARF. Enough to make me think about it for my next tank.

[sly fox]

theres something about the garf website that puts me off reading stuff on there, i findit very userunfriendly, so a link would be nice :)

[Hamp]

I set one up on my 18 as an experiment in Feb, and it is doing great.

[CoryDude]

I remember when the Juebert method was all the rage in the 90's. Every mag recommended the deep sand beds w/the pvc/eggcrate plenums, but yeah they seem to have died off since then.

I tried it on a 75 gallon. But, I didn't like the extreme sand bed depth (8" in my case), not to mention the loss of display area. And, I've had better luck w/a berlin system anyways.

Cory

[SoLiD]

Yeah I saw the info on Garf but I have still yet to see one in action.

[Ping]

The Headlee's (GARF), Paletta, Sprung, Delbeek and others no longer advocate the Jaubert plenum method. Plenums were earlier aquarium science that made it possible to keep Coral alive. It has been discovered that the same benefits can be achieved from Deep Sand beds, either in the display or in a remote vessel. The anaerobic region deep in the bed is what completes the denitrification cycle.

[CoryDude]

Yeah, I remember that guys back then would always brag that they hadn't changed h2o in like 2 years and still didn't have any measurable nitrates.

The main thing about those systems back then w/regards to coral health w/its exclusive use of Araganite. The deep bed acted like a very slow Ca reactor since the media would slowly dissolve over the years.

Then the Germans showed us their wonderful Ca reactors and filtration technology improved by leaps and bounds.

[sly fox]

interesting... what do people think about the claim that unlike a normal dsb you dont end up with the discoloration and sulphur build up with a plenum?

[CoryDude]

interesting... what do people think about the claim that unlike a normal dsb you dont end up with the discoloration and sulphur build up with a plenum?

Not sure about discoloration: corals or substrate? Everyone has a different preference on setup, but I prefer an araganite sand bed of about 7cm deep, w/good in tank flow and volume turnover, and good skimmer.

Here's a good article I found on dsb's that may help:
http://www.wetwebmedia.com/deepsandbeds.htm