Controlled Plenum wasting - a new concept in

[Achilles Tang]

I've been following the idea of draining water from a plenum sandbed system as a means of avoiding the potential pitfall of a DSB/Plenum sandbed becoming a nutrient sink... it does sound interesting and there is a logic to the method.

However, it doesn't seem to produce noticeable results even with a tank with low bioloads & feeding and the experimenter is now using a denitrator and ferric oxide phosphate removers to reduce them to very low levels before this method can work effectively with a tank with higher bioloading.

Any comments? It'll be good for debate.

The full details can be found here.

(Pls, no questions about sandbed basics... newbies, pls read up on the many many posts made about how DSBs and Plenums work. Thanks!).

[marinebetta]

It's "in the works" for my tank - without the denitrator...too complicated at this point.

Sounds like it will work OK. At the worst it becomes a way to remove water for water changes. And if everything doesn't work out at all, just keep the tap permanently off - no harm done...

[Eric]

I've been following the idea of draining water from a plenum sandbed system as a means of avoiding the potential pitfall of a DSB/Plenum sandbed becoming a nutrient sink... it does sound interesting and there is a logic to the method.

However, it doesn't seem to produce noticeable results even with a tank with low bioloads & feeding and the experimenter is now using a denitrator and ferric oxide phosphate removers to reduce them to very low levels before this method can work effectively with a tank with higher bioloading.

Any comments? It'll be good for debate.

The full details can be found here.

(Pls, no questions about sandbed basics... newbies, pls read up on the many many posts made about how DSBs and Plenums work. Thanks!).

Read abt this from RC too, I think it will work, but the possibility of the plenum holes plugging up after a period of time despite the use of synthetic cloth is still there. Then we will be back to square 1. The method will delay the process of nutrient sink in the DSB.