DSB in a bucket

[ou812pezz]

I noticed a mention of this idea on RC from another post and decided to check it out. I've struggled with Nitrates for some time now. I've tired of countless water changes to get a handle on it. This was a really easy build. I had the plumbing parts laying around. The entry is 3/4" and the exit is 1". I used 60lbs of washed play sand and topped it with some coarse aragonite sand. My nitrate reading is 20 mg/L. I just did a water change today as well. I'll track it weekly for a few months and see how it does. You can read all about it at this link. It's a long read.
http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/sh...5&pagenumber=1

[mathias]

so you gravity feed it to the bucket and gravity feed it out of the bucket into your sump? did you seed the sand with anything?


and I wonder if it would be better with a small light and planted mangrooves?

[Ed]

Cool. I'll be tagging along to see how well it works.

[ou812pezz]

The water runs over the top of the sand bed from a t off my main return and flows back into the sump via gravity. You can plumb it any way you like as long as you keep a continuous flow over the top of the sand bed. I didn't need to seed the sand. Nature will take it's course in time. No light according to what I've read. I'm keeping it simple as Mr. Calfo describes it. I've tried mangroves in a DSB fuge on another tank. The problem with that is the mangroves have overgrown the space. cheers!

[ou812pezz]

first week nitrate still measures 20mg/L.

[urban79]

why the washed play sand. wouldnt you worry about the silica leaking out.

[ou812pezz]

play sand is cheap and serves the purpose. nope, according to the RC thread it's insignificant. Anthony Calfo writes it's usable for this purpose. All the discussion on it begins here. http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/sh...5&pagenumber=1
It's a long read but worth the knowledge if you want to control nitrates. Cheers!

[Ping]

Pat, did you add any live sand to introduce bacteria and speed things up?

[ou812pezz]

nope, according to what i read it will find it's way. I don't expect results for another 2-3 months.