How dangerous is a DSB if it is disturbed?

A

aentrop

How dangerous is a DSP if it is disturbed?

How much disturbance is bad?

I'm thinking situations like,

1: Poking a plastic chopstick down into it
2: poking it in and swirling it around a bit

3: moving tons of sand around by scooping all the way to the bottom with a cup a few times and distributing it about - OK I undestand how bad this can be, but what about 1 and 2?
 
@aentrop wrote:
I'm thinking situations like said:
I have a pretty big Goby who stirs my sandbed up all the time. It's always moving around. I've had two bacteria blooms but nothing negative has come of it since I run ROX carbon constantly. It usually clears up in 2 days.

I wouldn't suggest poking it and swirling around a bit. I've stuck things down into the sand band to get them to stay. I think a lot of it depends on how fine your sand is and really "how" deep it is. I run about a 3" sand bed so I wouldn't really consider it a deep sand bed.

My fuge on the other hand never gets bothered except for the creatures in it (snails and bristle worms)

Have you had a bacterial bloom?
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I have 2 engineer gobbies ...
I also have a DSB.. about 6 Inches and more in places..


The way i figure it is this.

My gobies stir the sand and kinda defeat the purpose.

From what I understand the idea is that the sand bed is deep and traps the toxins in it. well if my critters stir it up all the time then the toxins are no longer traped.

I like the gobysa because they make the sand bed ook natural and keep the sand bed somewhat stired but then again I do not like them because you can not put any corals low and you have to be careful how to stack the rock..

I guess to answer your concern is this..

From all the reading i have been doing if you stir your DSB then you will release toxins .. So you have to be ready to remove them some how.
If you have an established DSB.

Now just poking it with a stick?? well you will still pop those bubbles of toxins in it and release toxins... you should keep an eye on water conditions .. guess it just depends on how much you poke it.. What you have in the tank as far as live stock. and if your filtration system can handle the extra load you will put on it...


May be an idea on a way to clean the DSB up ... if you slowly release the toxins ina controlled state and work through your sand bed mmmmm

still you would have to watch the water levels and it would depend on what live stock you have as to the worth of the attemp..

I have a 40 with a DSB as well with only 100 plus live rock and a single true perc pair and a nem.. I disturbed it once but I also have a 30 Gallon sump/refuge with a oversize skimmer ready fo it...


I guess in summary every tank is differant but it will be a chance you take and depends on how much you disturb at once and how much livestock you have.


Of course this is just my opinion and i am by no means a expert on DSB ... the question just got my head thinking..
 
I moved my tanks three times with DSB, never had any problems, never changed out my sand, I would guess it's about 5 years old now.
 
first question would be why would you want to do any of these? secondly have you already?

if you disturbed it you can stay on top of issues with water changes and possibly some polyfilter and carbon.

critters normally only disturb the first couple inches of sand which is not problamatic, its the deeper stuff, 4-6 inch range that become an issue. try not to disturb this area as its purpose is to stay as is. only beneficial actually when it is not disturbed.

poking something in it to stabalize or what not or anything in such a small area will not hurt anything.
 
the bacteria near the top is aerobic meaning they like oxygen stuff near the bottom is anaerobic meaning oxygen will kill it. Also the gases near the bottom being released into your tank can be toxic
 
Depends on the size of the bed... if you have a large footprint, localized disturbance won't be an issue. The smaller the footprint the more risk you run.

Gobies etc typically are not recommened, as some will eat your sandbed fauna. Others who just dig are less of a problem unless they hit a pocket of Hydrogen Sulfide, that is the major risk of disturbing a bed and the thing that you hear killing critters. The risk with digging animals is the exposure of the oxygen free zones getting oxygenated. In a large bed, that is less of an issue and the areas exposed will quickly re-establish themselves.

Any disturbance will kill off bacteria, either smothering the ones that need oxygen, or exposing the ones that don't need it to oxygen rich environments so its best not to mess with it.

Sandbeds can also accumulate nitrates, nitrites and phosphates. If you have a properly seeded and functioning bed, these will be less of a concern if any at all since the bed itself should process them. If not, then disturbing it can release these back into the column.
 
what if your sand bed is always being disturbed? what if I had a plenum and 100 nassarius snails? what if i had a ug running in reverse at a very slow speed, and my dsb was in some way of speaking like a fluidized sand bed?
 
@TheFatBoy wrote:
what if your sand bed is always being disturbed? what if I had a plenum and 100 nassarius snails? what if i had a ug running in reverse at a very slow speed said:
A DSB is not a DSB if it is a plenum..... The snails are fine, they do their job of moving small localized patches of sand. That is one of the reasons we have them....


A DSB is not a DSB if its used like a fluidized sand filter.

It may be a deep sand filter, or a deep sand bed with a plenum, but both are NOT DSB's by the common definition used or understood with DSB is used.
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@TheFatBoy wrote:
so a dsb only refers to an undisturbed bed of sand? ok. said:
Yep, typically that is how its defined. While the others may include beds of sand that are deep, they are not referred to as DSB's.
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usually a true plenum is "an air space" but in our case it is a void between the substrate and the bottom of the tank

i will have to read an article in on of my mags it is a two part article...

but if i remeber correctly they do

1.sand 2.crushed coral 3. netting to hold it in place then a void for some water..

hawaii aquarium uses a plenum in one of their exhibits.

the use of a plenum from what i read is suppose to be safer than a dsb as the gases are not building up over time..

i never looked into it much as i went bb
 
I had the same sort of question when I was preparing to add my jawfish as I was concerned that there would be issues I think the tank was sitting about 8-12 months before I put her in. But she has dug up the 5 inch deep sandbed to the glass bottom pretty much everywhere in the tank and there have been no issues.
 
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