Interesting thread advocating for us to clean our sand

[jcnkt_ellis]

Rocks actually shouldn't suffer from old tank syndrome if they have proper flow on them. The bacteria on the surface of the rocks breaks down the waste on them and as they die, the still living bacteria shoves them off the surface of it.

[Paul28]

the old way was always deep sand bed now the new fab is use bacteria to fight bacteria first was Vadka then Bio pellets , now the add this to fight of this bacteria in a bottle to fight this I love Waste Away is my prefered bacteria

[Paul28]

Rocks actually shouldn't suffer from old tank syndrome if they have proper flow on them. The bacteria on the surface of the rocks breaks down the waste on them and as they die, the still living bacteria shoves them off the surface of it.

one day your rocks will take on so mutch phosphate it ill start to release and cant hold more if you are not taking your phosphate out your nitrogen cycle will not remove phoshates

[Paul28]

one day someone will come up with a bacteria to remove phosphates instead of just absorbing it into a media and are little sea worlds will great

[Paul28]

At the same time, those little critters moving through the bed are pushing the poo deeper. They help migrate the waste to the bottom of the bed where it can't be sweeped up by the powerheads and flushed to the sump where the skimmer waits. Then, as time moves on, the poo fills up the bed from the bottom to the top. It's call "old tank syndrome" as well as other names when your sand bed fills up with poo and the only advice given is to pull out the substrate and start fresh. If you siphon from the beginning and get the poo out, there is no need to refresh the substrate.

yeh if you start from the start cleaning it allways keep up on I yeh that's a great way of doing it but both methods work

[Paul28]

to tell you the truth if I did it again I would only put 1 inch in so I get reflection to the bottom of my corals get light and regular clean it on water changes, I wish I could put no sand but then your corals underneath wont get reflected light

[jcnkt_ellis]

My problem with saying that both systems work is that the DSB system is inherently flawed. Depending on bioload and thickness you could go close to a decade, maybe more, without cleaning out the poo. However, eventually the bed will be full and there is no guaranteed safe way to remove or replace it.

Also, your rocks filling up with phosphates is directly proportional to the amount of poo you have in your tank. If you are siphoning out the poo and have good flow on your rocks, they will not fill up. The surface bacteria on the live rock break off the top layer of rock in order to free up the phosphates the rock traps. When the bacteria dies or poops, the phosphate is offloaded in what's called bacterial flock. If the rock has good flow around it, the flock will be lifted away from the surface and it will settle on the floor of the tank where it can be siphoned or left to stew. Nature, in its own way, ensures the rock doesn't become over saturated with phosphates if it is cared for properly


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Paul28]

My problem with saying that both systems work is that the DSB system is inherently flawed. Depending on bioload and thickness you could go close to a decade, maybe more, without cleaning out the poo. However, eventually the bed will be full and there is no guaranteed safe way to remove or replace it.

Also, your rocks filling up with phosphates is directly proportional to the amount of poo you have in your tank. If you are siphoning out the poo and have good flow on your rocks, they will not fill up. The surface bacteria on the live rock break off the top layer of rock in order to free up the phosphates the rock traps. When the bacteria dies or poops, the phosphate is offloaded in what's called bacterial flock. If the rock has good flow around it, the flock will be lifted away from the surface and it will settle on the floor of the tank where it can be siphoned or left to stew. Nature, in its own way, ensures the rock doesn't become over saturated with phosphates if it is cared for properly


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

you cant say its Flawed if your saying that everything in this hobby is flawed what works for 1 may not work for another , and for Phoshate you put phosphate in everytime you feed the more you feed the more phosphate it get in a lot of ways, yeh in nature were the water is changing every second why are we doing this anyway everyones tank is deferent my sand bed has never been messed with in almost 9 years and my tank is STUFFED what works for me might not work for others its part of the hobby everyone does deferent ways ??

[rrasco]

the old way was always deep sand bed now the new fab is use bacteria to fight bacteria first was Vadka then Bio pellets , now the add this to fight of this bacteria in a bottle to fight this I love Waste Away is my prefered bacteria

Waste Away, and other similar products, provide bacteria that "attack and dissolve" organic wastes.

Probiotic bacteria metabolizes inorganic carbon along with no3/po4. This bacteria is then removed through foam fractionation (i.e. skimming). Vodka, vinegar, sugar and biopellets are that inorganic carbon source.

Eco Balance is Dr. Tim's probiotic bacteria.

[Paul28]

Yep love my Waste away cleaned the poo up in my tank