|
Hey all,
Just wanted to voice my experience using the remote deep sand bed.
My 125gal tank is lightly stocked 7 fish (well fed) with maybe 10 soft corals. Theres maybe 30 pounds of live rock ( seed rock) the rest is home made stuff, even though you really can't tell now as it's pretty much encrusted with coraline algae. I took care of phosphates with phosbane, even though they never went beyond 1 PPM now it's 0 testing with Salferts test kit. But my nitrates were in the 25 ppm range and was doing water changes to try and reduce this level, but with the feeding I was hovering in that range for a month and even cutting down on feeding really never managed the nitrates very well.
I figured I would give the bucket idea a shot. I had an old external pond filter that uses a spray bar to feed water into it and thought this is perfect item for my application. The dimensions of the filter are 20L X 16W X 14H this gave me 320 sq in. of surface area which is a bit more than my best bucket at 15X15. I had a small fountain pump that gives me 160 Gal at 2 foot of head which I run wide open. Anyways to make a long story short within 2 weeks my nitrates have dropped from 20-25 ppm to 5 ppm tested this morning
. Not to bad considering the time period.
The sand I used is aragonite Carib Sea sea floor special grade around 50LB. and filled the filter to about 1.5 inch of the inlet. I placed an elbow on the bulkhead for draining (inside of filter ) so I could adjust the level of the water. so it flows at the level of the inlet 1.5 in. Basically there's 1.5in of water over the sand bed being fed by the spray bar on the width (16 in.) at a nice even flow over the length. The sand depth is around 12 or so in. So far I'm very pleased and will let you know when I hit 0.
LRS078 "Of course I recall Mr. Calfo's data on a 2000 gallon system doing great on a 55 gallon tank RDSB. However we don't know what kind of bioload or what other filtration was involved so there comes the dilema."
It was is a store system and I assume a good bio load if I recall properly.
Not to hijack this thread but.
Just a personal comment. I know this hobby can become expensive and DIY cuts down on some of the cost. But please remember that your LFS needs to make some money. Livestock is not a huge money maker in general and requires a lot of time and expense. From personal experience I have seen many people ask for recommendations and advice on setting up there tanks just to turn around and make their purchase elsewhere to save a couple of bucks. Mail order, Big Box stores etc. don't support your hobby, all they do is is price and sell. If your fair with the LFS store when it comes to purchasing your dry goods, I'm sure the owner or managers will be more than happy to work with you to make it a bit more affordable. Remember a good LFS works hard to make money and have a lot of expense's to cover to stay in operation. If they continue to get cut out of the loop for a few bucks, your only hurting yourself.
If a moderator feels this part of my post is out of line I won't be insulted if it's erased.
Best regards
|