Anyone have experience using?

Then let them do it A SS (sand sifting not nazi) star would work, and maybe some hermits. (1 or 2)

 

Yeah you dont need to many Inverts. That would do. I would wait a week or so before you added then to make sure they don't starve.

 

er my 2 cents

HI,
I am new to saltwater thing, I have tried some idea's and keep finding that more isn't always better,
I had two canister filter running 24 seven with carbon and phos media in one and mostly a media in the other, with saltwater systems they muck up pretty fast almost require weekly cleaning due to mud and calcium.
SO i Pulled them off live, and the coral took off almost over night, maybe it was removing too much from the water colume, so I tried a fluidized bed water filter I ve even seen critter in the sand column of this filter it has a huge bioload without any of the negative of a clogged sand bed.
Most sand beds are limiting factors due to extenction of species be it bacteria mud worms, and so on.
So its real important to re-seed a dsb maybe as much as every 6mos.
your bacteria can only divide so many times and then they poop out samething can happen with worms to many of those limited gene pools. That why DSB belly up every so many years due to mortality of the worms and bugs.
So even a DSB needs a little re-seeding once in a while or it may belly up due to extinction.
Finally try to understand that most saltwater systems are struggling to export waste, it a big problem, even phos can cause problems yes the sand can slurp it up as does the algae but guess what happen when the algae dies. the phos is back
So the problem isn't with adding systems its realizing that saltwater needs to have a lower animal population to have a balance of bacteria and animals.
You will reach apoint where nothing you add will work until you have a die off and see an improvement due to decreased load.
Thas why many of the experts keep a very light animal load with or without corals. doug

 

Your never going to get the bioload low enoguh for that to happen. In the words of Eric Borneman, "Even a frag sized coral in and olympic sized swimming pool would be overstocked in the wild"

I think that DSBs go because there full. The bacteria do die off, then you get the dreaded Old Tank Syndrom crash. It happend to me. It can happen to you.

 

I wonder if that would work on my hubby.....I can put some on his back and the hair would slide back up to the top of his head

 

would getting a bag of L/S at the LFS every 4-5 months or so help rectify this problem?

 

Dont worry about that. Just replace the bucket every 4 or 5 years.

 

oh thats easy, just drill a hole in new bucket, grab some new sand and presto new DSB.

 

TMI TMI!

 

Yes it should be enough, but longer is better than taller because the light wont penetrate the chaeto mat very deep. So maually spreading it out to get the most light is best. But nitrates are a funny thing, what should be enough often isn't. Any new system IMO should have some sort of remote deep sand bed technology.