Urgent Help on sandbed

[newmarine]

Hi,

Is there any lifespan for sandbed. Currently have a SSB of around 2 inch. Have the sand with me for around 3 yrs. Read somewhere that sandbed can be a house for nitrate and will crash the tank after some time. Recently got a sudden spike in my NO3 (100ppm), could it be the sandbed about to crash? Should I replace them, if yes any suggestion what type of sand should I go for?

Need advise urgently.

Thanks

PS: will be doing a major water change this week to bring down the NO3 and at the same time rescape my tank.

[VanDeam]

you need a minium of 3inch of DSB of undisturb sand . 2 inch not deep enuff for DSB . but it can accumulate alot of dirt and dertrius .. so maybe u wanna vacum or get some sand stirrer to clear the problem ..

[newmarine]

ok. heard alot about aragonite sand. thinking of changing to that. what do you think?

[Achilles Tang]

hard to determine the lifespan of any DSB... depends on your bioload + your export mechanisms.

A shallow sandbed has no NNR capabilities... you should have set it up right from the start, well, you can always add in more depth and wait for it to work in reducing nitrates.

In the meantime, change water....

[newmarine]

ok. btw, I am running a denitrator with sulphur bean too.