DBS with Freshwater tank?

[crazybulldog]

I have had 120 gal saltwater tank for 2 years and I use “Deep sand bed” for Nitrate control and it has been doing well.

I’m wondering whether DBS would work for freshwater tank or not (In case of Nitrate), may anybody could give me any comment abt this topic. I’m plan to set up my new freshwater tank( abt 100 gal. with 15-20 Tetra/Rasbora ,a few cory and some plant )

Thank you all…..

 

[TCTFish]

I think a DBS would work great in a FW as it does with marine. Just need to use different substrate, but the same basics apply. There are loaches and spaghetti eels that can live in the sand and remove trapped gasses that build up in DSB. I put up two 120 gallon plant systems and used a mix of small grain gravel, flourite and live sand...yes there is live sand for FW available. The animals like loaches and spaghetti eels are also good for keeping the flourite from becoming caked in the lower layers of the substrate. If you really want to get into nitrate control on a natural level as you did with marine, there are FW clams that eat nitrate. They are short lived as most clams marine or fresh, but they are cheap enough to replenish when needed (only a couple bucks per). There's the flower shrimp which are good for filtering small particles of food debris. Instead of pincers, they have these flowerette looking things htat they catch food debris in the 'currents' with. They get about 4" so you wouldn't have to worry about many of them becoming lunch for anything...LOL.

 

[Fishyfanatic]

Clams actually eat free floating food and the such from the water. I'm not sure how beneficial a dsb is in helping reduce nitrates. In our 150 gal tank we have a 5 inch sandbed (those Arficans REALLY like to dig so we have to keep it deep) and it hasn't helped with a reduction in Nitrates. In fact, we have to do water changes twice a week. BUT, maybe I'm not doing something correctly to make the sandbed work as Nitrate reduction.

 

[TCTFish]

The whole idea of a DSB is to cultivate denitrifying bacteria. They only live in areas of an environment without any oxygen. The top layers of a DSB choke the bottom layers of oxygen so this can be accomplished. You still have to do water changes, but vacuuming the substrate is eliminated. If you vacuum a DSB, then you disturb the necessary bacteria that eat nitrate. If nitrates are a problem even with a DSB, then there's obviously too much of a waste load in the system meaning too many fish and/or too much food.

Clams do utilize nitrate but their main thing is to reduce nitrate in the system...which also means eating minut particles of food which end up as nitrate that even filters can't take out...just as the flower shrimp do...but flower shrimp don't utilize nitrate.

 

[malkore]

The whole idea of a DSB is to cultivate denitrifying bacteria.

Just a clarification, as I know you know what you meant, but to be proper its denitrAfying bacteria. DenitrIfying bacteria are aerobic and part of the normal cycle process


Aside from teh wrong vowel you're absolutely correct. However, in order to make this work, you have to keep low stocking levels like in a SW tank. 1" per 5gallons, rather than 1" per 1gallon...so 20% of a normal stockign level.

If you really wanna lower nitrates, go with live plants and high light, with CO2 injection. Some of us plant geeks actually add nitrate back to our tanks

 

[Simpte]

The whole idea of a DSB is to cultivate denitrifying bacteria.

Just a clarification, as I know you know what you meant, but to be proper its denitrAfying bacteria. DenitrIfying bacteria are aerobic and part of the normal cycle process


Aside from teh wrong vowel you're absolutely correct. However, in order to make this work, you have to keep low stocking levels like in a SW tank. 1" per 5gallons, rather than 1" per 1gallon...so 20% of a normal stockign level.

If you really wanna lower nitrates, go with live plants and high light, with CO2 injection. Some of us plant geeks actually add nitrate back to our tanks

I would agree with almost all of this. A DSB in a freshwater tank is not needed and provides more hassle than its worth. Even if the tank isn't planted, NO3 levels will be much higher in a fw tank vs salt. While salt keepers shoot for less than 5 (.5 is ideal if I read correctly), Freshwater tanks run from 5-20 normally. Waterchanges are still a must and water volume is important also. Waterchanges will keep your NO3 levels down easier than trying to rely on a dsb.

 

[Skyrmir]

I still wanna know why it's so rare for marine tanks to have plants. There's tons of corals and shellfish and the DSB system, but why no plants? Are there just none that survive in a saltwater tank? Or do the fish tear them up that badly or what?

 

[Simpte]

Not as much of a variety in marine plants. Not like freshwater.

 

[Skyrmir]

Not as much of a variety in marine plants. Not like freshwater.

I guess there's only so many types of kelp and sargasso. I just remember pulling up clumps of sargasso on the atlantic to watch all the fish go flying out while I was snorkeling. I would have figured there would be a lot more variety of fish that would love that type of environment. At least aquarium sized fish.

 

[crazybulldog]

Thank you all very much. I’m very glad to receive many kind comments for my first post.

By the way. In fact there are many types of beautiful Macroscopic Algae, which they are not just like a green junk film on glasses, which we can keep in aquariums. But the problem is many types of marine animal that we keep love to eat them a lot, so it’s quite hard to keep these plants growing in main display tanks, unless we can take the eyes off those many pretty herbivores. However it is ganna be much beneficial to keep these plants in Sumps or Refugiums.