MY nitrates will not go down!!!

i wont tell you what you have or havent seen, all i know is what happened in my tank and his tank sounds similar. that waste that falls into the sand bed doesnt simply vanish, dsb beds produce some very dangerous chemicals that can kill live stock, which is why your never supposed to stir a old one deeper the the very top, where do those pockets of chemicals go? nowhere they just keep building up. sand beds that are deeper then a inch but not dsb are more difficult to clean and stir when you bed isnt being adqueately cleaned it will also build up the waste .. most myths have a small basis on fact, and then some myths turn out to not be myths at all.

the lives of are tanks are short so far i havent found a method of maintains deeper sand beds indefinitely, eventually the chemicals will build up and leech into the tank. remember just because you see a tank last 5 or 10 years means nothing.

 

You should use a product called Marine Clean by Tropical Sience.

They make great stuff. My LFS has been around for a long time and he uses it in his main tanks like every 3 months. It is simply amazing, it breaks down old left over {Cr@P} in the tank.

They also have by far the best reef safe Ich immune booster I have ever used.

Tropical Science Biolabs - Makers of Nitromax

Check them out.

 

A good ole sand sifting star works wonders for your sandbed...8)

 

Sostoudt, what dangerous chemicals do you refer to? Hydrogen sulfide? You would smell it FAR before it is dangerous in your tank....
Have you SEEN a sandbed nuke a tank? The detritus that gets pulled into the sandbed is further worked by the bethnic invertebrates and polychatae worms that dwell in the sandbeds particularly deeper in the bed. As the detritus is worked it will slowly be converted into N2 gas and thus completing the Nitrogen cycle...
I have run a tank with a DSB in either the DT or fuge for the last 5 years now and have had no issues. I also have run plenums on 3 of the tanks and contrary to what I have read on boards and OLD articles the plenum was NOT filled with noxious gases nor did it even smell.... It smelled cleaner than my water change water that I deliberately fill with nasty detritus water....

 

yes hydrogen sulfide is what im talking about, with deep sand beds.
yes i know how the last part of the nitrogen cycle.
the maintanence of a non shallow sand bed but still to shallow to be a efficent dsb is alot more difficult, the shallow yet not very shallow creates a zone where aerobic and anerobic processes cant take place efficiently. waste will build up in this zone in all but the lightest of stocked tanks. the point is maitence is just to difficult to do it effectively on the 1-4 inch beds.

im also sure there is other stuff that builds up in your sand bed besides just ammonia(im looking for article but i have to go to school now.) another question what happens to ammonia that reaches the anerobic zone?