Help Needed On Plenum design

[delta]

it seems that there will always be controversy. The speaker you guys are talking about said there is no difference in sandbeds, where as people like GARF and Anthony Calfo swear by things such as the plenum, DSB, and DSB bucket, all of which having success stories. I'm sure all three are very reputable sources, yet I guess it all boils down to how well you take care of your own tank.

Yes they are reputable but the testing showed with out a doubt there is no difference. So this is why they all had success with the different systems.
plus the testing is very recent the opinions\argument\conjecture have gone on for years.
Alot of the sources you refers to may have or have not tried alternate sytems whereas the testing used them all and it was not one just one set of tests

 

[ScooterNH]

My setup

Hi, I want to design a plenum for my 75g and would appreciate any info or help.

Thanks
Jerry

I'm new to all this too so don't have years of experience behind me. But I also did a bunch of research and spoke with a number of people when I set up my tanks.

In keeping with the "we'll all do what WE believe to be right" philosophy I'll just list what I did. [and some brief explanation of why].
Right or wrong it's what I feel is right and just another example for you to digest (listed as it is stacked in tank).



Mixed Aragonite Bed : [area for worms, and burrrowers etc to live]
3-5" varying grain sizes. Mix of a few grades of aragonite, packaged "live sand", and a thin layer of fine sand on top. Slanted to be deeper toward the back. (But my engineer gobies are doing a nice job of mixing it around as they build their tunnel network)

===========================================
Gravel Bed : [undisturbed area of no/low-oxygenated water]
Double layer of screen (non-metal) [To prevent burrowers]
2" Course non-aragonite gravel [won't disolve over the years]

------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1.5" Plenum : [supposedly to allow dispersion of no/low-oxygenated water to avoid completely dead spots]
1 layer of screen (non-metal) [so nothing falls through egg-crate holes]
Plastic "Egg Crate"
1" PCV tubes



PS: Oh, and I placed base platforms (aragrocrete pedestals) to support my live rock on top of the screen of the gravel bed. The upper aragonite sand layer was filled around that. This serves two porposes. 1) to support my display live rock so that it doesn't sink into the sand over time (as happened in my little tank). 2) so that diggers/burrowers don't undermine the support of the live rock.

 

[Armando]

Proud SSB user for 4 years now -- I've never had a DSB.

Matt

I don't know if there is a significant difference between using a SSB and DSB unless you have a very large tank.

 

[Matt L.]

Armando,

There is one large difference: The SSB isn't deep enough to permit denitrification.

My sand bed is live, but does not denitrify. Keeping the bed shallow deters the lower layers from becoming anoxic, es evidenced by cyano lines and bubble formation. Of course, there are some anoxic spots, but I want to keep those to a minimum.

Matt