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 Posted 1/13/2006 10:30:46 AM |
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hey anthony glad to have found u alive and well with a nice new place i read a great deal of the rdsb thread on that other forum and found it to be a great filtration method but i jsut have a couple of questions
first i will start by telling you about my tank it is a 135 gallon with a 40 gallon sump it will be on the heavy side of stocking as i am keeping preds in it so the rdsb seemed to be perfect for me anyways onto my questions
a) is there a reccomended size for a specific tank (i.e.. one bucket for x amount of gallons, 2 buckets for x and above) and if not is there any benefit to running 2 buckets or would i be best served by jsut replacing the first bucet sooner
b) how often should the bucket be replaced
135 gallon predatory reef 
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| Posted 1/13/2006 2:39:01 PM |
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| Definately not Anthony, but in theory if you have no detrius build up you will not have to change the bucket. As far as volume of sand goes, there will only be as much bacteria as there is nitrate, in this case. So if you have enough bacteria in a 5 gallon bucket, that is all you need. It is my expierience that if you go to HD and pick up a small extra thick rubbermaid container, and plumb it correctly, it will propably be more than sufficient enough. If not all you have to do is replace the container, not the plumbing or bulkheads etc.. I personaly run 7 gallons on a 75. Fully stocked. GREAT.
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| Posted 1/14/2006 2:37:44 AM |
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thanks for the input, Rungeg  Good tips/perspective my friend.For future readers of this thread too, the other thread being referred too is a nice long discussion (a must read): http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=595109 As for any rule of thumb on amount, it really is easy to get a reasonable amount of sand to handle a typical bioload. Vague enough?  To be specific... a five gallon bucket will hold 60lbs of fine sand easily. That small/simple DSB bucket can easily reduce nitrates in a four foot long aquarium (60-100 gallons). ONn arger aquaria stocked lightly... it may still work very well. For perspective, I have employed a filled, drilled 55gallon aquarium as a rdsb (near full of sand indeed and plumbed flow-through with shallow water cruising the length of the tank) and had it handle 1500+ gallons of holding tanks. That's really quite imrpessive. Thus, the use of "kitchen-sized" garbage cans or trash cans as rdsb's for bigger display tanks is really (good) overkill. Does this help?
. Anthony Calfo
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| Posted 1/14/2006 5:25:13 AM |
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| i have a 260g BB tank. i have been having the nitrates hovering in the 5-10 range. lots of LR. last weekend i set up a 55g rdsb with about 8" of fine aragonite sand. it will be interesting to see how long it takes to reduce the nitrates. i will also light it with 2 96 watt PC's and have some algae in it. i have about 500gph going through it. i have it plumbed to dump into the main sump just before the tank return pumps. i hope that will eventually allow any pods, etc to get to the fish and corals. Carl
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Carl
"almost any obstacle can be overcome with information; information is truly the oxygen of understanding."
Anthony Calfo
Going Solar
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| Posted 1/14/2006 12:32:08 PM |
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| It will be very interesting to see how well, if at all, your rdsb helps you Carl. We'll be quite grateful to hear your feedback in time. If possible, do not make any major changes in husbandry or bioload for the next 3-4 weeks. After one month, let's see if you get the reduction you were hoping for. I must say though that a five gallon bucket if full is rather small for a 260 gallon tank. And to have only 8" of sand is very modest. If added to that this tank has any decent bioload such as the inlcusion of a fabulously pooping tang ... I really don;t see this small rdsb helping or hurting you much FWIW The addition of Chaetomorpha ot the mix will be some small benefit (again... small relative to the size of this tank). best of luck!
. Anthony Calfo
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| Posted 1/16/2006 8:49:42 AM |
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What would prevent the sand from becoming a brick? I have 2 remote sand beds, 1 is a fuge with 6" the other was a sump that got converted but doesnt have enough sand at this point (adding more soon). In my areas of higher flow i have to remove large chucks of sand. Does this happen with the bucket, or does the lack of light effect this?
I havent tested if the clumping is biological or chemical, I do know from my controller that my PH low point doesnt drop below 8 at night.
Thanks!
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| Posted 1/16/2006 9:25:46 AM |
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Please take the time to read the thread listed in my previous post, my friend... it answers your question and so much more in detail. But I will add that the fusing of aragonite is not inevitable... on the contrary. It is errant husbandry that causes it and it is easily avoided. No worries
.Anthony Calfo
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| Posted 1/16/2006 9:29:21 AM |
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| Anthony: my RDSB is a 55 gallon tank with 8" of sand in it. not a 5 gallon bucket with 8". it is a little different from the pure RDSB as i did put some LR in it and will also have three fish. a 5" Scott's Fairy Wrasse, 4" clown tang and 1" blue tang. also two 96 watt PC's for lighting. flow through is about 700 gallons per hour with an additional 500 in tank with a powerhead. Carl
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Carl
"almost any obstacle can be overcome with information; information is truly the oxygen of understanding."
Anthony Calfo
Going Solar
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| Posted 1/16/2006 9:58:09 AM |
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| Ah... I see, Carl. My apologies for the fast read and oversight. 8" ina 55g aquarium is a fine RDSB volume for denitrification in a 200g-ish aquarium. But I must say that the inclusion of fishes in this tank effectively ruins many other benefits of it as a refugium. Worms, pods/zooplankton/microcrustaceans are severely handicapped by their presence, and such plankters are a huge benefot to reef tanks when their populations are spurred in refugia.
. Anthony Calfo
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| Posted 1/16/2006 1:00:40 PM |
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| I have little space to work with. What would be the minimum amount of sand that would be usefull for a 90G?
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