PLENNUMS
 

Well I'm thinking of doing a plennum in my tank and was curious if you can shed some light on it please.
CAn you use OYSTER Shell for the base .?
and anyother links can you steer me in the right right ...

mike

Mike, oyster shell can have a huge phosphate content. I wouldn't use it. As for the plenum, most people think that a DSB does the same/better thatn a plenum. And with a plenum, you still need to use sand. Do a search on "jaubert +plenum" in google.

My experiances with a plenum are mixed. They seemed to keep my tank stable and kept all the fish healthy. But I seemed to have an onging algea problem that I could not get rid of. Also if you have any diggng fish, forget about it. Even with the window screening separating the layers, it seems to affect water parameters. Also you loose about 2 inches in height of your tank just from the plenum. So you loose as much as 6-8 inches after the gravel. One really good thing about the plenum was that you can sort of neglect your tank and not have too much change in your water paramenters. My 135 g tank was self sustaining for 6 months with no feeding or water changes. Just topping up the water. I think that the deep sand Bed without plenum works far better than the plenum. But that is just my personal experience.

Simon

I had a plenum for about 5 years. It was OK but I wouldn't go that way again. While it did "work as advertised," so too does your garden variety DSB... And like Simon points out, if you have a burrowing fish, be prepared for headaches (I had a jawfish for a while, and nothing but problems when it came to the effectiveness of the plenum when that fish was around)...

It seems to me plenums were an innovation of the early 90's .... DSB's were an innovation of the later 90's .... same benefits but less problems overall.

thanks for all posts Gents
much accepted
here is a question for ya . Can you still mix white sand blasting sand with the argonite on a dsb ...

Yep, my last 2 setups ran a mix of both without any ill effects.

Clinton