DSB in a bucket for nitrate control

[Anthony Calfo]

Silversnake, I think you could easily reduce your 20-40ppm nitrates to near zero with the RDSB but especially with tidy feeding habits and very regular partial water changes. Looking forward to seeing your progress.

[Savatage]

I have had my RDSB running for about 3 months now, maybe a little more. I have had, ABSOLUTELY no fish in my tank either. I never feed the tank anything, but my nitrates have gone up slightly since adding the RDSB and I now have GHA growing all over the place.

My lights are only 3 months old, only on for 6 hours a day, and my Phos is reading 0.

I tore down my Denitratication tube and it was clean as a whistle.

Can anyone point me in the right direction? Please? lol

[a4twenty]

how long has the tank been set up? a lot of new tanks go through algae blooms, mine had a wicked one when i moved it from a 70 to a 120, and across town. phosphate readings of 0 can be a little misleading if the algae is consuming the available phosphates. where did you get the sand from?

[Kinetic]

I am setting up a 10G display, 10G sump system. What dimensions of a DSB would you recommend? Where can I find all sorts of buckets in different sizes?

[gotdibz]

heres how my dsb bucket is going along i used a rectangular shape bucket because the lack of space and i used this sand from home depot

[trmiv]

Which is the inlet, the higher one or the lower one?

[gotdibz]

the higher one is the inlet....i ran out of sand so the sand level will still be a little higher

[psimitry]

Is it common for an RDSB to kick off an algae bloom? I have a metric TON of brownish algae growing everywhere in my tank since I installed the RDSB. Oddly enough though, I'm not reading any appreciable nutrients in the system.

[euphylius]

Originally posted by psimitry
Is it common for an RDSB to kick off an algae bloom? I have a metric TON of brownish algae growing everywhere in my tank since I installed the RDSB. Oddly enough though, I'm not reading any appreciable nutrients in the system.

You started three weeks ago as I can read. Maybe new cycle is going on? Whats the volume of old sand in the tank and new in RDSB? Are algae similar when new tank is cycling?

[Galtamar]

Originally posted by gotdibz
heres how my dsb bucket is going along i used a rectangular shape bucket because the lack of space and i used this sand from home depot

exactly my setup, but i have more sand and it came from the beach

[psimitry]

Originally posted by euphylius
You started three weeks ago as I can read. Maybe new cycle is going on? Whats the volume of old sand in the tank and new in RDSB? Are algae similar when new tank is cycling?

There's definitely more in the RDSB than there is in the tank. In the tank I think there's about 30lb of mixed black (non-calcium) sand and calcium/silica mix playsand.

In the RDSB there's about 60LB of calcium/silica playsand.

The tank was pretty much cycled when I built it (went from old 30G to new 50G w/ only adding about 10lb of sand and no new LR), so I can't really say if the algae was similar. This tank has been established since I bought it (through a series of upgrade cycles).

HOWEVER - I will say that I can't really recall seeing this type of algae in the tank before. Normally I get a really bright green algae. This stuff is definitely turd brown.

[Savatage]

GOTDIBZ: Where did you find that sand???????? If there is a possible substitute for our Southdown, that would be great!!!!

[Savatage]

Originally posted by a4twenty
how long has the tank been set up? a lot of new tanks go through algae blooms, mine had a wicked one when i moved it from a 70 to a 120, and across town. phosphate readings of 0 can be a little misleading if the algae is consuming the available phosphates. where did you get the sand from?

My tank has been up for two years. My sand is not the problem of the GHA. I have silica sand, and dispite all the hearsay of diatoms because of silica, is a myth. I have never seen diatoms grow on a glass bottle. LOL
I know it's a simple problem that needs figuring.

[psimitry]

Originally posted by Savatage
GOTDIBZ: Where did you find that sand???????? If there is a possible substitute for our Southdown, that would be great!!!!

It's probably a calcium/silicate blend. It's rather common in playsand. I can pick it up by the truckload at home depot.

[dstalfire]

I just built a dsb in a bucket. Thanks for the ideas. I do have a question, I have 160 gph flowing through it, is that enough? The flow is not massive, but it is there. The water is comming from my sump and is somewhat filtered before hand.

Do I need to step up the flow or am I ok?

[psimitry]

Originally posted by dstalfire
I just built a dsb in a bucket. Thanks for the ideas. I do have a question, I have 160 gph flowing through it, is that enough? The flow is not massive, but it is there. The water is comming from my sump and is somewhat filtered before hand.

Do I need to step up the flow or am I ok?

There's no way to quantify how much flow you need through the RDSB.

If detritus is settling in the bucket, you need more flow. If the sand is blowing around, you need less.

[gotdibz]

Savatage .. i got the the sand from hope depot this sand is very commond and everyone on my area uses it because is pretty good and easy to find and it does the job

[Savatage]

Thanks GOTBIDZ, I'll have to do some checking and testing and if it passes, I'll use it.

[gotdibz]

let me know what your conclusion is

[dstalfire]

Thats where I got mine from.

[silversnake]

Thanks for the vote of confidence Anthony. The bucket is set-up in my sump and I can't wait to see the results. I did discover a problem with my tap water that I've been using for water changes though. 10 ppm trates. When I tested the tap water before I got 0 and didnt check it that often.

[DgenR8]

Your tap water can change day to day (even less). That's why so many people use and recommend RO/DI. Who knows what's coming from your tap that we never thought to check for. Again, just because your tap water has been fine for XX number of days does not mean that your next water change with it won't kill off half or all of your tank.

[Avi]

I'm very interested in the idea of the DSB in a bucket, but alas, I have no place to put something so large as a bucket, even a "square" one. I was wondering if there'd be any utility in making using a tall piece of PVC, say 3-inches in diameter and 4-feet high. Any thoughts on doing that as variation on this theme?

[Galtamar]

Originally posted by Avi
I'm very interested in the idea of the DSB in a bucket, but alas, I have no place to put something so large as a bucket, even a "square" one. I was wondering if there'd be any utility in making using a tall piece of PVC, say 3-inches in diameter and 4-feet high. Any thoughts on doing that as variation on this theme?

Too little surface area. Is not the height what is important is the surface area u want a 1.5 to 2 feet of height only but as much a surface area as u can.

[Avi]

Thanks...I had been under the impression that it was necessary to have an area where oxygen in the water wouldn't reach the depth of the sand, thereby fostering a growth of anaerobic bacteria that would consume nitrates because oxygen didn't reach there. If it's surface area that's critical, then you'd be saying that the the DSB in a bucket's designed to provide area for aerobic bacteria?