Any long runng plenums out there?

[sweevo]

Hi, i'll be upgrading my reef tank in the summer (currently 29g +10g sump) and i'm currently looking into options, costs etc.

Because the new tank will be larger and in my lounge i'm seriously thinking of not using a sump this time around (mainly due to the noise one can generate) and i'm thinking of going for a plenum and DSB in my main tank. I'm currently planning to have a new tank with a foot print around 36" x 24" and just wondered if a Plenum and DSB of this size would be big enough to work "effectively" ?

I read up on DSB's prior to building my current setup but was put off by some of the horror stories (mainly on Nano tanks) i'd heard about, tank crashes et al! Do any of you currently run a plenum and DSB in your main tank and more importantly have any of you run one of these for any length of time, eg over 3 years or more?

[sweevo]

No one run a plenum long term? Am I being Kamikaze? ;)

[swamprat]

I'm interested also!

[buffalo123]

I ran a plenum for 7 years. Most do not recommend it. But i did find success with it . After year 6 one thing I notice was a depletion of life in the crushed coral. I added some fine rubble from the bottom of the lfs live rock tank. I eventually shut it down on moving day.
Started with no skimmer ;added skimmer after about a year with good success.
Had no sump and kept mostly soft corals.
Tank is was kind of low maintenance however when a problem comes it must be addressed right away.
I once allow caulerpa to grow it became alot of work to get the tank back to normal it took months.
Control the caulerpa growth,\; had lots of halimeda which was not much of a problem because it grew slowly.
I am currently preparing to setup a reef after a few years out of it, i am currently considering A deep sand bed mostly because of the use of fine sand which i already have, but my first consideration was a plenum because it worked for me last time.
In my opinion the difference between the plenum and the deep sand bed is with the dsb there is more of a anerobic area at the bottom of the sand bed. with the plenum a low oxygen area but not anerobic. What difference it makes i don't really know never really studied it.
With

[buffalo123]

check out this tank on the jaubert system www.totm.aquariumpros.ca

[sweevo]

Thanks for posting buffalo123, much appreciated. :)