How long before my DSB matures

kyarnkid

Member
I have had it up for 9 weeks and when I topped off my water about a week ago, the left side of my tank bubbled. So I thought it was starting. Well I haven't seen any signs since. I have about 60lbs live sand and 45lbs of reef agronite sand by carib sea in my 55 gallon.
What do I need to look for?
How do I know when its fully matured?
 

rhomer

Member
There is no maturing for your ls. What I'm guessing is your real question is your tank cycled. You will need to get a good test kit to test for ammonia, nitrites, and nitrates.
The proper cycle for a tank is to first add something to start the cycle, or add ammonia to the tank. This will cause bacteria to form to consume the ammonia, the ammonia levels will drop then the nitrite levels will rise. Nitrites are poisionous to fish, inverts, corals, and coraline alge. Once your nitrite drop to 0 your nitrates will jump. Without really good filtration your nitrates will stay up.
Fish and hardy inverts can stand some nitrates, but corals will die or not grow with any nitrates in the water.
This process can take weeks to complete depending on the size of the tank, and the amount of ls/lr.
If you want your cycle to complete sooner I would suggest getting some lr. Probably 1 lb for each gallon of water. Lots of live rock and a deep sand bed will cycle a tank much quicker. Once your ammonia and nitrite levels are 0 and your Nitrates decrese to very low levels your tank has completed its cycle.
Good luck :cool:
 

kyarnkid

Member
I have cycled my tank, I have 2 yellow tails damsels and I have a True Perc. I have 6 astreas and 15 hermits. I have no Ammonia, No Nititres and little to no Nitrates. I have a 55 gallon tank and I have about 50 lbs of live rock.
 

rhomer

Member
You should be good to go. I'm going to be setting up a 55 here soon, what power heads do you have in your tank??
 

fshhub

Active Member
you earlier said your sand is starting to bubble??, if that was your post, then your sand is working, and as far as the bacteria goes, it will breed bactereia during the cycle, and by the time it is producing ubbles, you got em going
 

kyarnkid

Member
Hub,
It only bubbled last time I did a top off and it only bubbled on the left side of the tank. I have my filter and skimmer on the right side, so I am assuming that is the reason my tank does not bubble on the middle or right side. Am I right?
 

fshhub

Active Member
ours bubbled, then din't, then did, then din't, now it is pretty constant, it just takes a couple of months, and another thing, if you are stirring your sand, don't that will disturb your bed, which you don't want to do
 

fshhub

Active Member
that is fine, that is why you have them, to clean the upper layer, amoung other areas of the tank
 

josh

Active Member
Hi,
Well I don't have a DSB but I have read plenty about them. Yes there is a muturity period associated with DSB. From what I can tell it is around 6-8 months. That is not to say it won't work till then, but I won't become fully active.
Josh
 
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