APOLOGY IN ADVANCE, I ramble like crazy about fish stuff. ...
DeeDeek,
I have some ideas, and questions.
Without rereading the thread, I know you mention scuds as a useful inhabitant for DSBs. However I do not recall you speaking of personal experiences with them. Just how useful are they. Anything that contributes to the cycle is good, but do they just scurry about on top of the sand eating, or do they dig a bit?
Black worms will be easy to acquire. However, what are your thoughts on using tubifex worms in a DSB, providing they are healthy and disease free when attained. Wouldn't they burrow through the substrata, and provide a similar service that blackworms would. Would they overpopulate to quickly?(not an issue, the carp would LOVE them. Yes, an actual carp, not goldfish species.)
Is their smaller size a big draw back for using them? I have found anecdotal evidence of "escaped feeder" tubifex worms thriving in aquaria, and the 'dirt' that gets vacuumed out of the gravel around them is 'clean' and organically rich and nontoxic.
Freshwater isopods. Aquatic pillbugs.
I have kept these in aquarium before, mostly as easily maintained live fish food. I don't know if they burrow, but they are tireless scavengers. I know for a fact that a pile of dead leaves can be turned into dirt by these guys, it's what I feed them when keeping them. I also read somewhere that they do not eat live plants.
Fingernail clams.
Tiny bivalve water filters. They burrow, though very shallow. I'll have a ready supply in about a month. What are your thoughts on these for a DSB aquarium?
"crawling plants"
Ground cover, aquatic grasses and the like. Would a total covering of the DSB surface create problems, or would all of those plants just help? Half of the aquarium is Brightly lit, for plants, the other half is moderately lit, and will have a chunk of driftwood, once i stumble across the perfect piece while wading in the river. I don't PLAN on having a total covering, but just in case...
Omg, I rambled, I'm sorry for such a lengthy post D:
I love to ramble and to read long-winded yarns and rambles!
I must confess to having only recent experience with scuds NOT resulting in deaths (of scuds). What I think about scuds is that they run around on the surface eating stuff and excreting smaller stuff - burning off organic matter for energy and absorbing proteins and pooping out more stuff with more concentrated minerals. Yes, they absorb and utilize minerals, but the minerals are not burned off like organics are so homeostasis requires that the scuds (or any other animal that poops) excrete minerals at the approximate rate they are consumed, unless the critter is growing.
Scud poop=fertilizer, in small small particles which can sift down into the sand.
I guess I haven't addressed tubifex worms in this thread but in an article of mine (allegedly) coming out on
http://wetwebmedia.com this month, March, I explain that while I name only like four primary multicellular organisms to integrate into the sand bed, the important thing isn't the species but the function it serves. I go on to suggest tubifex worms, and the addition of assassin snails to control MTS as well as digging a fair bit themselves.
I think freshwater isopods and bivalves are great ideas!
I don't think ground cover plants would be a problem. They'll probably interfere with the MTS but they'll provide a very extensive root system in exchange. Who knows? It might actually be an improvement! Scuds would be great in such cover. They love cover and they'd fit in amongst all the leaves and eat food the other denizens of the tank missed, and their poo would go straight through the matted plants and into the substrate! Planaria would continue to do their organic-matter-disintegration thing within the sand. Blackworms, at least, get along great with root systems. I've discovered Blackworms curled in amongst roots I've unearthed from the blackest, deepest, anaerobic pockets in my tank. I'm sure the worms are taking their oxygen from the microenvironment surrounding the roots which, it has been noted before, actually carry oxygen down with them in order to infiltrate anoxic and anaerobic regions.
Any-who, Blackworms like roots, of all depths
Here's how I think about DSBs. The sand takes in mulm, holds, plants, houses bacteria in different environments interlinked by diffusion. If you can find a substitute for sand that adequately does those functions, you can toss the sand and substitute for it. Plants absorb metals, bring aerobic organisms into anaerobic and anoxic environments without wrecking those environments, absorb CO2 and build tissue from it - thus storing carbon for future release upon death, and so on and so forth. Find an organism or organisms that'll tackle what a plant does, or at least do the most vital things the plant does, and go ahead and substitute it for plants.
If you're familiar with computer programming, you'll see a similarity; computer programs are made of chunks of code, sometimes called objects or subroutings or processes etc., the important thing about is that they accept a given input(s) and respond in a characteristic, consistent manner, usually altering some data, returning a value (output), or affecting some hardware element of the computer. So, input - function - output. Here's a list of some common functions which occur in the freshwater DSB.
Ammonia - nitrification - Nitrate, nitrate - denitrification - nitrogen or nitrous oxide, hydrogen sulfide - hydrogen sulfide eating - sulfate
In my way of seeing things, it is these functions which are important, not the precise means. Except, I like DSBs rather than power filters with biomedia, so personal taste dictates what I will use as a biofilter. Objectively, it matters little unless you, say, have fish that require still water or the opposite. Then you need either a DSB or a power filter which creates a nice little current.
You can consider a current or a lack thereof to be outputs of the general function of filtration.
If you don't want deep sand but do want denitrification, there're plenty of other schemes which will give you this (at greater hassle, expense, equipment, but hey-some of use like cool equipment!). It can be a nitrate - denitrification(fluid bed filter) - nitrogen or a nitrate- denitrification(FWDSB) - nitrogen function.
One can have a fishtank with that awful, tacky, epoxy-covered, colorful gravel (no offense! Each to her own taste.) with one of those hob filters that take those wafer-cartridges (filter pad, carbon, filter pad) that are changed regularly so there's little biofilter, vacuum the gravel a bunch, change water in quantity and frequently, and overstock with goldfish. Here, we have human labor working to reduce ammonia, nitrite , etc., and improve water quality - substituting for any form of biofilter. All the functions of the freshwater DSB have been simplified and streamlined into waste - waste removal(vacuuming, water changes) - clean water.
The substrate is a simplified one, and let's assume plastic plants substitute (poorly) for the aesthetics of real plants as well as plants effects on fish behavior. Well, much of the functions plants carry out has been accomplished through water changes but a few remaining have been accomplished by plastic plants while the remainder have been simply dispensed with - nonvital in this style tank. Hood lights substitute for the sun, a heater for sun/weather, filter for natural circulation, tank for natural body of water, fish food for bugs, vegetable matter, etc. In fact, this hypothetical goldfish is essentially the only natural (well, highly domesticate actually) part of the "ecology" of this fishtank unless there's some algae, aquatic fungus, ick, or other minor organism. Ok, there's microorganisms but hey, out of sight out of mind - no?
Honestly, the freshwater DSB is the same thing as the aforementioned goldfish nightmare. It is a circumscribed, managed, mini-ecosystem with some essential natural "inputs" substituted by human intervention and artifice. We choose and provide light, tank, water chemistry, substrate, species to stock, circulation, and temperature for the most part. Even an "el Naturalé" tanks is highly artificial.
We choose the elements we choose in order to attain a goal; a pretty fishtank with lots of colorful fish, impressive large sized predatory fish 'cause we're macho, bio-topes, aquascapes, breeding, etc., etc.
So it ultimately is summed up by the function of aquarium stuff (fish, filters, tanks, substrate, medicine, water treatments, fishnets, etc.) - aquarium - human's aquarium goal(aesthetics, ecosystems, predators, pretty fish, breeding, etc.).
Obtuse, no? Well, I basically set a limited set of final goals to attain, and consider what functions will combine to result in that goal and let my personal taste, resources, and philosophy guide me in choosing what PARTICULAR thing will fulfill each function: I wanted a healthy, planted tank with low circulation and the capacity to stock somewhat heavily with fish and to keep some invertebrates, and as little maintenance (vacuuming, water changes) as possible.
Justin, the owner of my fave LFS, turned me on to his, more simple, freshwater DSB approach when I told him of what I wanted to accomplish. I've gone several tanks, learning by observation and reading (mostly "Ecology of the Planted Aquarium") so my implementation of the freshwater DSB has diverged from Justin's as I've learned and experimented, becoming more complex but still doing basically the same thing, just with a few added benefits like enhancing CO2 levels and greater fertility from mulm's better infiltration of the sand.
Ok, so I suggest everything and nothing. What fascinates me is all the knowledge, possibilities, and life processes in the freshwater aquarium hobby. I detest narrow approaches and especially when certain techniques are either pushed or shunned without thorough understanding of how they work and possibilities are excluded from expression.
Well, well, well. How's that for a ramble? Fish, systems, knowledge, and free expression!
One final thought I must express: It's wonderful, Grammarus, when other people put a little thought into reading the work of others (like me!) and get their own ideas and make suggestions and ask questions! Thanks for contributing, I really liked your post!...Would you consider creating a thread to journal your progress with the sand bed tank you're working on? The stream nearby as an influence is very intriguing!
