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Old 09-18-2006, 10:46 PM
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Chin_Lee Chin_Lee is offline
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Default crap is crap, poo is poo

Regardless of who poops first and what eats the poop, the secondary poop eater will still poop something out in the end. We are hoping that the amount of nutrients in the secondary poop is substantially less than the first poop which in turn is substantially less that the raw food that was first consumed. The poop eating chain can continue as long as you have the right organisms that enjoys eating its neighbor's poop. And the key word is the "right" organisms. Does anybody know what are the right organisms to form this wonderful poop chain of poop eaters? I have my doubts that anybody does but even if you know what they are, are you able to acquire them in the correct proportion to faciliate chain poop eating?
As much as I enjoy DSB's au naturel look, its only logical to go BB UNLESS....
a) you are assured and guaranteed that you have seeded your DSB with the correct organisms AND
b) you have given the organisms the time it needs to propagate within your new DSB to accomodate the bio-load of your tank or you increase your bioload very slowly in order to allow the organisms in the sand to increase accordingly

Here is something that I had written previously in a post regarding the pros and cons of DSB and BB.
Quote:
if you are contemplating on BB or substrate, go BB first. If you still don't like it after a few months, then add substrate. Otherwise its a PITA to do it the other way around.
I concur with the BB supporters - crud is inevitable and I feel that sand just hides it really well. some critters in your live sand will eat some of the crud but you will never have enough critters to sustain an aquarium environment's bio-load.
I can relate to this theory by this scenario - imagine yourself and your entire family being stuck in your house without any methods in which to remove your biological waste but a mysterious hand will continuously put food and water into your house to keep you alive. You are real happy for the most part because there's the big screen TV, computer, workout gym, various boardgames etc. However everyone dreads having to go to the bathroom but when they do, how many critters will be needed to live with you in your house to continuously eat and remove all that biological waste in your house? HOWEVER if that same mysterious hand can come in with a plastic tube and suck out all that biological waste, I think it will be somewhat ........ alright.
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