Is this a proper DSB?

[canadian_eh]

I see a lot of posts on DSB where people say that they must be done "properly" or else they can crash. I think I have it right but wanted to verify that this is what you would consider a proper DSB.

I have a 2.5 month old 25Gal setup with about 45# LR about 3.5" of aragonite seeded with LS and grunge from different LFSs.

There are lots of worms and worm tracks visable in the sand.
Stirring the DSB I have a bunch of blue leg hermits, 8 Nassarius snails and am picking up a tiger pistol shrimp tomorrow and eventually a watchman goby.

The DSB seems to be doing its job as my nitrates have now dropped to 0.

Any opinions on the setup are appreciated.
Thanks,
Ron.

 

[Sam]

If the stock you described will be all you are adding to the tank, I don't think you should have any problems. Bioload will be very small. Keep an eye out if you plan to add more livestock though, Remember that with the LR and LS in the tank, you do not have a 25G tank any more due to displacement. HTH

 

[phases99]

Skip the goby or any type of digging fish. If he digs into the hydrogen sulfide zone of the DSB it can crash your tank.

 

[canadian_eh]

yikes now I'm really confused. I thought the idea was to have something stir the DSB to prevent any areas from building up poisonous levels of hydrogen sulfide. If I shouldn't get any digging fish then how can I get a pistol shrimp?
I guess I still need some more help. Thanks so far.

 

[canadian_eh]

wanted to add sometheing else but my son pulled me away. So if a DSB and diggers don't mix then how deep of a sand bed to I need for a pistol/goby pair?

Thanks again.

 

[phases99]

Not sure, but some folks bury eggcrate about an inch or two under the sandbed to prevent fish from digging into the anaerobic zone. I've never done it but you may find the answer here.

 

[MT79]

I have a 3-3.5 inch sandbed and as long as you add the pistol shrimp while the tank is fairly new, there shouldn't be any problem. Those "bad areas" will not have formed in 2.5 months, IMO. To be careful, maybe bump up water changes for alittle while after adding the pistol shrimp. Also make sure to secure the LR (I "planted" mine in the sand) to prevent rock slides from the pistol's digging. A true DSB is 5-8 inches deep FWIW. W/ only 3 inches anerobic areas are going to be slim to none. I count on my LR when it comes to providing anerobic areas. Adding a pistol to a true DSB would be counter productive, unless some type of action was taken like Phases99 mentioned. IMO, true DSB's (5-8 inchers) are slowly fading away.

 

[clowninround]

My clown swishes his tail in the sand till he puts a hole to the glass (my sand bed is 4") he does this in stages. Will that have the same affect as the goby

 

[MT79]

My Maroon clown does the same, except she tends to bury my brain and flower pot corals :x while making territory for her and her anemone. I'd say thats not as extreme as pistol/goby pair. They tend to move every inch of sand in my 29. FWIW remember sand "diggers" and sand "sifters" are two totally different things. Sifters tend to eat alot of what makes a sand bed a LS bed, and that is not good at all.

 

[canadian_eh]

Excellent...thanks for the clarification on DSB. Luckily I did think ahead and used base rock under the LR for stability.

 

[phases99]

My clown swishes his tail in the sand till he puts a hole to the glass (my sand bed is 4") he does this in stages. Will that have the same affect as the goby

Wow, goes all the way down to the glass 8O My Clown started doing similiar but has decided to host a PH instead . I would be cautious if it started digging another hole as you don't know if it could hit a sulfide pocket. Most likely nothing to worry about but running some GAC 24x7 goes a long way to solve any issues before they become issues.

 

[Bang Guy]

Hermits are predators and will eat sand bed critters. These are the critters that move to water through your sand bed. You don't want any large animals stirring the bed. The critter population might be able to keep up with one Blue-Legs hermit but not much more. A sigle predator can be a good thing but over doing it will deplete the number of critters too much. Scarlets tend to stay in the rocks so they're a better choice IMO.

The Goby you chose will quickly eat all of the sand bed critters and you'll end up with a dead bed that will become a nutrient sink and cause problems down the road.

 

[clowninround]

He does this even with an anemone. What exactly is a sulfide pocket? What makes it dangerous? And how does the carbon help?

 

[ZivioRR]

What about a sand shifting star?? will it make my ls into dead sand???

 

[Bang Guy]

Yep.

 

[phases99]

He does this even with an anemone. What exactly is a sulfide pocket? What makes it dangerous? And how does the carbon help?

A sulfide pocket is an area where the anaerobic bacteria live that contain Hydrogen Sulfide. It rarely builds up to toxic levels in an aquarium where the sand bed is truly live and functioning properly. If detritus is not consumed by the sand critters it can build up to toxic levels over the years and get released if a fish or something exposes these lower layers. GAC will help to absorb small amounts of hydrogen sulfide that could exist in a healthy DSB if disturbed.

I decided not to get an Anenome for my clownfish. That's why he loves the PH.

 

[ZivioRR]

So there should be nothing other than the little crittters stirring up the sand??