Look at my septic tank - whats in yours?
 

This is a picture of the bottom of the bucket after I did a quick siphoned cleaning of my BB tanks. This was only a 20g water change. Makes me wonder where all these muck went when there was sand in my tank.......
http://i123.photobucket.com/albums/o...e/IMG_1399.jpg

Mmmmm....that's the tasty bit right there!!

one day I went around the store and emptied every protein skimmer cup into a single bucket. I'm NEVER doing that again!

Wow. I was just thinking last night how I might like to try a sandbed again. Ummm...maybe not. :surprise:

It is amazing the amount of "mud" that shows up on the bb. It amazes me the amount of crap that comes off LR when basted. Then two hours later you get just as much when you baste again.

I really don't like the bare bottom look but 2 out of 4 of my tanks now have it. The stuff in your picture is the reason they are BB.

Chin Lee...I thought you changed your name to Aquattro? If not, then who was Aquattro before the name change?

Aquattro is Brad aka Reef_raf.

That is some of the most bioactive goop on the planet, I'd imagine. Unsightly? Yes. Bad? I wonder...

All that was laying in the bottom of your tank Chin?!!

When I vacuum my SSB the crud is a sort of light tan color, and a rather disappointingly small amount. The sand bed organisms must be digesting it, for good or for bad who's to say.

Summer's coming so I won't likely vacuum for a few months. Should be interesting to see what comes out in the fall, if I can still get at the sand bed.

Rob

Yikes :eek:

Sadly my tank is about what, half or a third the size of yours and I used to get about that much crud out of my tank...weekly :redface: Since I got rid of my diadema urchin, the crud load is down by about half.

I added 20 fairy hermits to the 33g temporary tank and the hair algae was eradicated overnight but the detritus all of a sudden exploded. I'd rather have detritus than hair algae :)

It is all a big chain of digestive events right?....so when it has been run through every critter in the chain a few times, what do you really end up with? With a bb tank, I suppose there aren't as many processes in place to break that stuff down into more harmless material.

haha funny, i got sick and tired of my sand bed and took it all out yesterday, good thing too lol