Live rock + DSB - how the heck?

A larger sump with more live rock rubble will take
care of that.

Wayne Sallee
Wayne's Pets


Pszemol wrote on 1/30/2007 11:52 AM:
"Add Homonym" wrote in message
...
THIS makes a lot of sense.

The real question is - is it true explanation or not ? :-)

Also, the idea of no mechanical filtration, which I was advocating here
for long time after reading convincing arguments online does not work
all the time. In particular, it did not work for me. I had no mechanical
filtration in my 58 gallon tank with two big fish and two smaller ones.
The buildup of detritus was overwhelming... The fauna in the sand bed
(DSB) could not keep up with processing waste so I had constant problems
with hair algae. After the sand bed cycled and nitrates went down to zero
(not measurable) I had red/maronn cyanobacteria blooms on almost
every surface of the tank.
I got algae under control after using phosphate removals and cyano
was partially gone, but amount of detritus from dying algae and fish
waste was still making the water dirty...
The real break trough was when I started using filter sock over my
drain pipe in the sump and blowing rocks in the tank with a turkey
baster - the amount of brown/beige stuff (detritus) collected every day
in my filter sock is amazing. The water is much clearer now and I do
not see so much algae growth on the rocks...
Occasionally I take a toothbrush and clean the rock from dead algae
and flying detritus dust in the water is filtered by the sock in the sump.

Very positive side effect of the filter sock in the sump is that it greatly
limit the amount of air bubbles in the sump finding their way to the
return pump and back to the tank. I had the problem with air bubbles
because my ghetto sump is simple 10 gallon tank with no dividers...
Now with a filter sock I have virtually no air bubbles in the tank.
Water is not turbid anymore and the tank itself looks much better...

So I guess the advice of not having mechanical filtration is good only for
reef tanks which have mostly corals and limited number or no fish at all...
With a lot of fish you probably cannot avoid mechanical filtration, but
keep them on very strict regime of cleaning every day to avoid turning
them into the nitrates factory. I wash my filter sock every day under
running water (no detergent, of course) and the water is literally brown...