"Yukon" wrote in message
hlink.net...

I think it just comes down to what you like. There are a few people on
Reef Central taking out their sandbeds, but it sounds like
they have had them for quite some time, with good results. They are saying
that after some years, critters or not, they start to
have trouble. I think no matter what you use, DSB, crushed coral, plenum,
or marbles, sooner or later you are going to have to
clean house. The old guy that owns the LFS that I go to has reef tanks set
up with UGF's, CC, DSB's, SSB's, a plenum, and BB. He
said for him, they all last the same amount of time before trouble starts.
He told me 9 years ago when I went to him to start
setting up my reef, that no matter what you use, if you do your water
changes, and do not overfeed, you can plan on 7-9 years before
you have to do a major overhaul. My 55gal started having major problems
with brown algae for no reason, so last month, after 9 years
I ripped it apart, took out 75% of the CC, put the rock back in, poured
some new CC in front of the rocks, and now hope to be good
for another 9 years. .


Interesting. 9 years....maybe that is the magic number when to schedule a
overhaul.
Maybe I am lack of experience at this stage since my tank is not nearly at
9Yrs yet. I have seen some of my friend tank way beyond 9yrs mark. I believe
this is call "Old-Tank Syndrome" that I keep hearing about from RC and other
Reefer. My guess is regarding about builting-up nitrogen gas that have been
trap either in the DSB or somewhere. With normal water changes or unfeeding
will not effect anything since this does not apply [well maybe abit]. Also
having plenum or CC on a separate location but connecting through a plumbing
will not remove gas from the main tank. Nitrogen built-up in DSB or any
subrate need to be stir or disturb occasionally to release some excess gas.
Normally worm or any critter that live under or in the sand bed will take
this job.

Check with your LFS if they have anything living in the sand bed or stir up
the sand occasionally to release any excess gas. BTW, I do not mean shifting
a huge plot of sand to release gas from the sand bed. From my friend
experience, it seem to fix this so call "Old-Tank-Syndrome".

Old-Tank-Syndrome = Experience or Mature Reefer / Know it all / Lazy Reefer
that let the tank go and assume nothing will go wrong since that tank been
going this long.
Also, small problem will become big problem later if not taking the time to
be fix which will be another so call "Old-Tank-Syndrome" effect.

I do not see any different if you take out the old CC and then put some more
new CC. The only different is the sand been release gas while you remove the
CC.

The brown algae probably from bacteria that is feeding on your decay that is
being trap by your CC. Moving to the next point, do you have any janitoral
crew like shrimp [any type], worm, or snail that will roam your sand bed or
your rock etc? If you do, how much?

CapFusion,...