DSB Help

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SIMS

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Hi All

About 3 months ago I setup a new DSB, I used 25kg's AM Aragonite at the bottom, then 30kg's Coral sand, the 14Kg's Caribsea Aragamax and on top 9Kg's Caribsea Aragalive. Total DSB height is around 20 - 23 cm the Caribsea stuff makes up 7-8cm. After reading about DSB's I feel that I may have taken the cheap route and will not get the full benefit as the crain size on the bottom 2 layers are not perfect.

1. Am i correct in thinking this?

2. If I have made an oops what would be the best way to fix it - I was thinking to get another bag of each of the Caribsea products and just adding it ontop of the current DSB? ?

My DSB is 750X500 if that makes any difference....

Thanks for the help....
 
Sims,

I'm no expert here, but I feel that at 23cm almost any smallish grain size would do. That is deep and I have heard from some people that the deeper the DSB is, the coarser you can allow the substrate to be. But probably just up to a certain point.
 
Ok well that makes me feel so much better - I'll post a pic tonight so you can see the difference in grain size.

other thing is I see no life on the dsb at all - is this normal for the first few months?
 
SIMS said:
Other thing is I see no life on the dsb at all - is this normal for the first few months?
Click to expand...

Yes. Do you have some hiding spaces for pods? I think that's about the only thing that will appear on it's own. Unless you seed the DSB with what you want in there I don't think anything will happen. Unless ofcourse you have all the life already in your display.
 
i thought Aragalive was gonna help kick this life thing off or is that just Bacteria? How do I add life to my tank - will it come over time? I have adder different types of rock ect. but I feel most of the life would have died from the transport of it?
 
I think the life they talk about is only bacteria.

Yes that is the problem with guys like me (us? dunno know where you from) that don't live near the coast. Very difficult. Hence my idea of starting a DSB/Live Sand club to exchange LS and take turns to bring some from the coast whenever someone goes there.
 
um...I live on the coast - Richards Bay but I have been told by the locals not to put anything collected near by in my tank - something to do with the harbour and pollution....
 
If you tell me where it's safe to collect from and/or what to collect then I would happily post you some (if that would help)
 
You are about the 10th person telling me that and it just doesn't happen. Anyway, the best person to ask would be Mille I think. Only thing I can tell you is that people say it's best to collect near rocks at spring low tide, wade in as deep as you can.
 
i got tons of tubes worms of feather dusters in my dsb , not sure which one it is , can some post pics of both but see no other form of "life". ive used fine coral sand , silica sand mix , dsb is 10cm high
 
SIMS, go to mission rocks, and pick up a few small rocks out the pools. Just a few fist sized ones, with a little algae etc on them. There will be a lot of little critters on here that will help sort your DSB out.

Aragalive is supposedly filled with bacteria (although i don't believe it), but with no critter life.

Galibore, you just reminded me that i owe you some sand. Will bring it up to the meeting next sunday.
 
Yip I am planning a Mission rocks trip soon, will also bring some sand back with me...
 
i read somewhere that a DSB shouldnt be more that 15cm deep.can any guru confirm.
 
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