Advice on Nitrate/Phosphate problems

[medican]

Thanks for clearing that up........

[albert_dao]

1. when you clean your sand bed you release a bunch of the stuff we try to get rid of in our tanks. The sand bed has its purpose and one of those is to filter that stuff. we keep the small critters there to clean the sand bed to keep it in check. When you change from a sand bed to a BB the release of nitrates is huge. No O2=denitrifying bacteria....but I'm sure you know that.

That's the thing, you DON'T GET THESE CRITTERS! Access to animals like burrowing crustaceans and worms is rather... nonexistant in Alberta, probably all of Canada. Hell, I've never seen them for sale in the states, only bristleworm packages. Again, unless you have access to proper live sand to top off a DSB, you're pretty much setting up a time bomb.

2. If your telling your customers to clean there sand bed, no wonder there tanks don’t thrive. So if you leave it alone like your supposed to, cleaning takes less time unless you like to look at all the crap on the bottom(until it grows over)

1. I don't start my customers with sand. I haven't in almost two years now. If they have sand, it's either because they started under someone else's guidance or they couldn't stand the look of BB. In the latter case, I recommend a super thin sandbed.

2. Anyone who has approached me with problems generally DID NOT touch their sand bed. In those instances, removal of the sandbed WAS the solution. I can't even count the number of times I've heard someone say to me "I'm never going back to sand".

3. As I've insinuated in my other comments, leaving your sandbed alone is NOT a viable option for long term survival of a reef tank. What if you need to move your rock to catch a fish or pick up a piece of coral that's fallen behind your tank? Do you risk crashing your tank each time that happens? I don't think most of us get into this hobby because we need to add another aspect to our gambling addictions.

Did you just claim to have the largest salt water customer base??????
Now you run a good shop but I think you’re a little full of yourself

I knew I was going to get grilled for that one, but what's done is done. I apologize for the remark. But like I've said before, it's in my best interest to keep people in the hobby. I'm not spewing misinformation, nor am I being unreasonable. My explanations were objective and I did provide a counterpoint (thin sandbed).

And yes, I do have the largest SW customer base in Calgary. I don't think anyone is going to deny that.