The reef gods have it in for me!

[Quinn]

I figured someone would bring the DSB into this. I do have one, four inches deep. Here's a few photos of it:







You can see that it has some dark brown bands in it, along with green areas. Lots of worm tubes and such. In the fuge I have seven inches, and it looks similar.

Here's some photos of the cyano. For some reason it is looking a little better since I originally started this thread, probably because I fished my goby out of the sump when I came home from school and now he's doing his thing, moving sand around. I'm sure it will return soon enough.

[StirCrazy]

Originally Posted by AJ_77

Victor, are sandbeds crashing in 6 months now?

it seams from almost every one I have seen laitly that they start to do minor crashes at aprox 1 year. I don't meen a total devistation type crash but rather if you look at posts and such you will see that people start developing turf/hair/other type of algae problems. while most of these present them selves as nussences that seam to come and go it just seams to much of a coincidence to me as the majority of people developing these problems also have DSBs.

Also the frequency seams to be partialy tied to the average amount fed to the tank. now I know I did do some heavy feeding on my tank myself but my phosphate/nitrate/ect levels were always perfect.

This has led me to my theory that a DSB will adsorb this stuff but it only has a certian rate of intake. now this intake can be super charged for short periods of time in which there will be a unusaly high amount of nutrents in the top layer of the sand. once the top layer becomes saturated the rate of intake will slow allowing algae growth to start. then from time to time something or some one will disturb that saturate top layer after which the sand bed will releases the excess nutrents that it is storing in the top layer at that moment. this leads to algae problems and such and it is done in such a matter that the slow prerelease of nutrents allows a good algae base to grow then when the major nutrents are released by some stiring of the surface level they are adsorbed by the algae almost as fast as they are releases by the sand bed. this explains why so many people who have DSBs and algae problems still have very good water quality levels.

anyways this is my theory and it could be totaly wrong but it makes sence to me.

Steve

[monza]

IMO I'd quick guess the same; over feeding and under skimming. Less light and food for a while and see if that helps to clear it up.

Best of Luck

dave

[monza]

Teevee

Had another look at the pics can'y really tell for sure but is that some aptaisia in your sand bed? Hopefully not, if so I'd get on that battle at the same time.

dave

[Quinn]

Nope, tube worms. No aptasia in my tank that I know of.

[reefburnaby]

Hi,

DSB crashing? It is a possibility and it could happen. When cyano and dino grow on the sandbed, it is commonly believed that the DSB is dead underneath the cyano.

I agree with Steve's Theory and it does make sense

Chemi-clean would probably work, but I would use it with caution and monitor the tank carefully (i.e. skimmer flooding). The only problem is that we won't understand the root cause of the problem.

- Victor.

[Bob I]

Having put up with Cyano outbreaks in the past, I am going to put forth the theory that Cyano is just part of the maturing of a tank. I have always had outbreaks at one point of a tank's life. From all the reading I have done on it, I have come to the conclusion that excess nutrients are NOT the problem. It seems to happen no matter what one tries. Yes I advocate Chemiclean, but in a tank of Quinn's size, it would get expensive., as one package treats 300 gallons. The package does state it is safe for reefs, and I have had no adverse effects from using it. The directions state you should turn off the skimmer for 24 hours during treatment, and to do a 20% water change afterwards.
No, I am not the Calgary salesman for Chemiclean,
I am just a fan.

And BTW, I don't believe the sandbed is part of the problem. I continued using the same sandbed after Cyano outbreaks, and there was no indication whatsoever that the sandbed had died. It is (in my opinion) just part of the current fad of trashing sandbeds.

[Canadian Man]

For once Bob I actually agree with you. The sandbed is the first thing everyone starts to blame without giving anything else a 2nd thought.

Maybe it JUST overfeeding and has NOTHING to do with sand bed's crashing. But automaticaly everyone starts blaming the sand bed because they read a thread on RC about it. Next we will all be ripping out our sandbeds

[Aquattro]

Originally Posted by rcipema

And BTW, I don't believe the sandbed is part of the problem. I continued using the same sandbed after Cyano outbreaks, and there was no indication whatsoever that the sandbed had died. It is (in my opinion) just part of the current fad of trashing sandbeds.

I also agree with this. If the sandbed was old, then maybe, but it's new sand and I don't for a second think that is the problem. Add more skimming, take away some food. If feeding frozen, rinse before adding to the tank. It won't go away overnight, but it will go away.

[Jack]

Originally Posted by Canadian Man

But automaticaly everyone starts blaming the sand bed because they read a thread on RC about it. Next we will all be ripping out our sandbeds

It's already happening