For those who use DSBs, option to bury rock!

[vlangel]

Hi, I did this with my tank and it's worked very well. Originally I buried some of the rock because the rock made up a retaining wall to hold in sand for a deep sand bed. I also wanted these heavy dense rocks resting on the bottom glass so digging fish would not undermine them. My tank is 24" tall so that way I could get more height with the rockwork by building on top of the buried rock. It has been very stable for probably 6 years. It also allows for more anaerobic activity to encourage denitrification. I feed heavy both frozen and flake daily and it helps with keeping nitrates manageable.

 

[Subsea]

Dawn,
I like what you did.

Once in a 150G tank, I made a platform/island of stacked eggcrate flush with 6” substrate.

 

[vlangel]

Dawn,
I like what you did.

Once in a 150G tank, I made a platform/island of stacked eggcrate flush with 6” substrate.

Thanks Patrick. How did you like the platform island? Did it do what you had in mind? My boss always put one layer of egg crate under his DSB tanks and he believed that encouraged the anaerobic creatures to do their magic of denitrification.

Originally I did it because I wanted a DSB and my tank started out as an AIO. I also wanted to minimize some of the height since reaching down into the tank to reach the bottom had me wet up to my arm pits. At this point I just like knowing that my high rockwork is totally stable and there seems to be a wonderful balance of import and export of nutrients. I really don't know how much of the nutrient uptake is from denitrification and how much is from macroalgae uptake. I just like the results.