"Berlin Method" Still being used ?

[427HISS]

Back in the 90's, I had several tanks including a 75 gal. reef and 200 gal. fish only tank. I have a question about the "Berlin Method". I don't recall if it was invented by Nielson, or Delbeek ? Anyway, I viewed a thread that the author said that with the Berlin Method, the bottom and no sand, just bare, no skimmer and relied just by live rock. if I recall correctly, (and I may have it confused by a different method) it did indeed have live sand, rock and a skimmer. The big difference was you elevated the bottom of the tank with 2" tall PVC pipe, place egg crate on them, then a sheet of window screening and 3" to 4" of live sand on top.

The main reason was below the sand level, a great amount of nitrifying bacteria would happen etc. When I applied this method to my 200 gal fish only tank with around 40 fish, after cycling, I had no registered amount of ammonia, nitrite and the big surprise, NO nitrate,....none, and it was also tested by my old friend Scott Michael, the author, photographer & shark and ray expert. If I have this confused with a different method, please let me know.

Anyway, whether it's from one of these guys or someone different, I'm asking if people still,... use this system and what your results are. I haven't seen or heard of anyone talking about it since I gave up the hobby back in the 90's. I'm now wanting to get back into it, so I have a lot of updating and researching to do before starting up again.

 

[mcarroll]

I think you may be blending elements from the so-called Jaubert system and Berlin system.

Many people do use the Berlin system as a base for design, but a lot seem to have gotten unhappy with the simplicity of it. Nowadays you see almost a reversion back the the "hi tech" reefs of the 80's and early 90's where there're reactors all over, poorly understood chemistry voodoo, etc, etc.

I still suggest Berlin (live rock, skimmer, minimal-to-no sand, moderate stocking levels) at least as a starting point.....works great for me as an ending point too.

-Matt

 

[johnanddawn]

+1
I have used both the Jaubert (deep sand and plenum) method and the Berlin (BB, rock and skimmer) method
Both work
My current system is basically Berlin - i love the simplicity and cleanliness.

 

[427HISS]

I figured I had a combo of both. I forgot that it was Jaubert that had the deep sand and,..... plenum method. I did not have any reactors, just the plenum, skimmer, my own kalkwasser drip. and bought iodine, magnesium & strontium. All my corals including stoneys were happy & growing very well. Actually, with regular water changes, very little additives were needed.

I had a star and a gobie to stir up the sand in my 75 reef and several in the 200 gal. fish tank. Loved watching the gobbie with it's shrimp buddy mouth out tunnels. What a symbiotic relationship it was !

So here's a question. As long as the sand is being moved around, turned over and thus being oxygenated, even with the Berlin Method, why not have sand ?

 

[mcarroll]

Most tanks have way too little sand bed to support anything more than burrowing snails. Regardless of inhabitants, in the long run you are in a war against gravity. A predictable winner, eh? Sooner or later, a sand bed will be full of detritus in almost every case.

There are at least as many pluses to bare-bottom as sand bed. Bare bottom often "wins" because it's the only one that's easy to maintain in the long run.

I have one of each, FWIW.

-Matt

 

[427HISS]

John, how thick is your sand bed and are you still using a skimmer & what brand/type ?

Hey Matt, I guess I was lucky as I did not have any issues with a deep layer of sand. Could have been that with all the stars, snails & gobbies, they kept it pretty clean, especially in the 200 gal.
I wish I had taken better photo's of the tanks, but all I had was a cheap camera to post pics for my ebay site. Every time I took a pic, either they came out too dark or the flash bounced off the glass. I now have a great camera, so future photo's should be high quality. All I have are videos from my OLD camcorder that are the VHC-C cassettes.

Do you see your bottom glass ?

 

[Nano sapiens]

The original Berlin system is accredited to the aquarium society in Berlin, Germany. Dietrich Stueber was very active in the development of this method, which borrowed heavily from earlier work by Peter Wilkins. I remember reading an article back in the mid 70's about this system and it wasn't long before I built my own nano system using many of this system's features.

The original systems employed gravel and later sand was also used. The BB approach was popularized in the US, but wasn't a feature of the original 'Berlin' system.

I'll stay out of the BB vs SB discussion, but a SB that is vacuumed regularly with the WCs is not hard to maintain. However, it can become a problem in systems where LR covers most of the SB making detritus removal difficult.

Valid points regarding the excess use of technology in many current day reef tanks and it mirroring the situation in the late 80's. More natural systems are typically quite stable and long-lived, but lack the 'Bling' factor when you open up that cabinet door and see what looks like a mini high-tech waste processing plant in there