DSB in a bucket

adidas · #1 02-28-2006, 09:56 PM

Anyone here ever try the deep sand bed in a bucket? think i'm going to set one up for a de-nitrifier.

DanG · #2 03-01-2006, 01:02 AM

Would you actually have enough surface area for that to work?

TheReefGeek · #3 03-01-2006, 01:22 AM

HUGE thread in reef central on this, not a whole lot of evidence YET that it lowers nitrates that much, but it is so cheap to operate, I am going to put 2 pails on my system soon.

Delphinus · #4 03-01-2006, 05:41 AM

Yeah, I'm trying it for about 2 months now on my 90g.

Unfortunately I can't say it's produced any results for me. But my 90g, despite being a very low bioload tank, has been battling chronic nitrate buildup for at least the past 6 months. So it's hard to say whether it is performing but it simply cannot overcome whatever it is that's wrong with the tank (old sand maybe ?? Underskimmed? Poor design of the sump? I honestly don't know); or whether it's just simply not performing.

Just to give you an idea, in January and early February I did a series of approx. 60g water changes and eventually whittled the NO3 down to about 5ppm from about 30ppm. One month later it is already 10-15ppm. The only fish are a pair of ocellaris, there are some emeralds, two peppermints and some acro crabs. So it's not really a case of overfeeding. Probably about 100-120 lbs of live rock and 1" of sugar sand. I skim with an ASM G3X and I also grow chaeto out of this tank and it grows like a weed. Nothing seems to be able to keep the NO3 in check. I had high hopes for the DSB in a bucket but so far I can't claim to see any of the results that others were claiming.

But, what the heck, it's an easy enough thing to implement. I guess it's a case of you have nothing to lose by trying it (except for the money to put out to buy sand).

dirtyreefer · #5 03-01-2006, 03:07 PM

If only sulfur denitrators weren't so damn expensive

Bill · #6 03-01-2006, 03:51 PM

I have a DSB in a separate bucket in my sump for about 2 months now. Not sure if it helps for nitrate, but the fish and coral definately look better. Fish are more lively and coral color, growth, and polyp extension is much better. Algae growth also slowed down.