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DSB vs Plenum - the controversy continues


quazi

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Quite honestly, I do not think there is a controversy.  We all use some form of transportation to get from point "A" to "B".  It really does not matter if you drive a car, ride a bike or walk.  The important thing is that your arrive at your prescribe destination.

 

Just accept the different methodologies and move on.  

 

Quazi this was not directed towards you.  I wanted to make a general statement.  

 

Hopefully the newbies will make an informed decision on whats best for their system.

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This is also not a flame but the DSB and Plenum seem to be quite different.  Every so often you hear of a well-established healthy tank crashing for no reason.  I wish someone had some stats stating whether these were DSBs of Plenum systems.
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A key difference between a Jaubert system and a deep sand bed is the grain size.  As Shimek points out all the time, animals like certain grain sizes.  The sizes used by Sprung in his Monaco-type systems are far larger than anything I would base a deep sand system on.  Sprung makes no mention of the grain size in his deep sand systems.  But I'm sure there will be more to come in Part 2 of the article.

 

-T

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To be quite honest, I think you could go with neither one and be just fine too. Don't get me wrong, I have a DSB in my new tank and had one before as well. I truly think these systems actually come in place to play a bigger role in larger systems that are very heavily loaded with fish AND corals with inefficient skimming. That is just my biased view though. On the other hand, it does offer some level of buffering when things start to go down hill.
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IMHO, sand beds, especially deep ones, offer a great deal more food for SPS corals than any bare-bottom tank can.  But, as always, there are a lot of factors.

 

Clearly, there are many ways to setup a tank and no one way is "correct".  However, there are ways that are "better" than others.  I count DSBs as better than wet/dry filters.  That is a far as I will go.

 

-Tom

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What's a big ATS????

By the way, there is a current thread in RC about bottomless tanks. Some interesting points of view there to read and consider.

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I had bare bottom tanks for eight years before going to the DSB two years ago.  So far I love it.  There is not only alot more life in the tank but it looks alot better then bare glass.  I have not seen much in the way of buffering help from the sand bed as I had heard about.

 

I had a bottomless tank one time too when I lived in FL.  I dropped a big rock in my tank that broke the bottom and put 30 gallons on the floor.  Something that doesn't happen w/ a sand bed.

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  • 6 years later...

Funny, we did a makeover on a very old fish-only system in FL that had 3" of crushed coral over a plenum in a 6'x3'x3' tank. Ripped out the eggcrate & window screen and added 4" of nice fine sugar sand. The plenum material became frag racks :)

 

I nominate this for "old thread of the month"

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Does anyone even still use a plenum?

 

Actually I do, just not necessarily for the traditional reason. I just set up my new tank. It is deeper then I want to deal with and I wanted to raise the floor. Using a plenum allowed me to raise the floor with less sand then I would otherwise have used. I've always had a plenum in my large tanks, never had a problem that I could blame on the plenum (nor success that I could attribute to it). No reason not to continue.

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