Benthic Zone

Matthew5664

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I don't know if anyone has seen the video on the sump set up with a benthic zone?

Does anyone have any experiance with this set-up type??
 
Its 8:30am :D

The way he describes it, that looks like a great idea...
 
thats what I was thinking but want someone who has some knowlage of the set-up first to give me a few pointers.

PS: your always online you must live above a starbucks or somthing??

When i google all i get is the bottom layer of the sea but cant find mutch is the way of tank set-ups. do you think its a bit like a cryptic zone?
 
Yeah, I think the baasic idea is to create a low-flow and no-light zone for those critters to be happy in and then let them go about filtering your tank

Oh and by the way, sleep is for the weak... And work is only for those who have bosses smart enough to tell them what to do :blink:
 
"Oh and by the way, sleep is for the weak... And work is only for those who have bosses smart enough to tell them what to do "



nice! I suppose I don't do alot of work when I'm here.
 
The idea is to create an environment where metal-reducing and sulfate-reducing bacteria can thrive, Ski is correct that is is a zero light and low flow area. It's a step up from your run-of-the-mill DSB and there's pros and cons. The pros are that the bacteria inhabiting the area can stip heavy metal compounds and elements from the water and 'lock' these away, the cons are that these compounds and elements will eventually get back into the tank once the bacteria die. To prevent this happenening periodic cleaning of the area is required which is extremely difficult to do without collapsing the system.

In nature as the bacteria die they themselves are 'locked' away due to the increasing amount of detritus falling on the sea bed and are eventually turned into bedrock, etc. and the compounds and elements form veins in the rock. If something was to disturb the bethnic zone it would only be in a localised area, for example an undersea quake, and therefore the water volume would absorb the release of the compounds and elements.

I don't think I need to paint a picture of what would happen if you disturbed the benthic zone in your sump while cleaning :/

All in all, not a brilliant idea unless you are running a large reef and fully understand what is going on in there. For the purposes of the average reefkeeper a well kept DSB and regular water changes will do the job just as well.

HTH

(Don't ask me any questions as that is the extent of what I know :p)
 
In the video he was talking about culturing aiptasia, sponges, tunicates, and cheato etc...to remove nitrates, detrius and to polish the water. A low flow, no light area for certain critters. Basically a refugium with a lights out area. And while it sounds interesting, I would have to wait to find out what kinds of problems you could have with this. Even running a UV isn't a guarantee that you won't end up with aiptasia in your main tank. Peppermint shrimp and copperbands have been known to ignore the stuff too...
I've never had aiptasia but I have had an outbreak of majano anemones and that was a nightmare! I think it's the aiptasia that has me a bit nervous!!


"Oh and by the way, sleep is for the weak... And work is only for those who have bosses smart enough to tell them what to do "

LOL :lol: Ha, I must be so powerful then!! Sleep and I have become sooooo unfamiliar lately. And unfortunately, I already know what to do on my job and so I can't get out of it! ;)
 

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