You know, I truly believe that the least unnecessary things to make A or B work the same the better.
When I started in the hobby, I ran into this guy, Ron Hudsicker (sp?), that spent nearly 4 hours telling me about how to set up a tank that would run forever. He had been in the bussiness and hobby for well more than 2 decades. He goes on to show me his bare bottom tank with tons of flow that is random from close loop outlets colliding against each other, he shows me his ozone unit and his reactors using carbon 24/7/365, he shows me this huge counter current skimmers and the nasty never ending stuff coming out of it, he shows me the tons of rock he uses in a separate sump and how he thinks refugiums are a waste of time and effort, he shows me his UV unit he runs in all tanks, he tells me about how he does consistant water changes, and he goes on to tell me how DSB are a pretty bad concept altogether that makes no sense at all. He then goes on to show me this huge and gorgeous tank packed to the rim with extremely healthy fish and corals. I had been reading in RC and here for a year+ by then and like every single person that thinks that they know it all I thought he was just a very old school guy that could not get with the times. I thought, he must be an idiot that does not know the latest about these great DSB, about wave makers, about not using UV or ozone because it is bad for your tank, and about not having many fish in a reef tank. He just refuses to get with the now. However, I thought that it was peculiar and gave hin credit because he had been doing this for years and years and things looked amazing in his tanks. Maybe it was just luck I thought.
2 years later, I know better. I now respect the guy and have ended up doing tons of stuff pretty much like him. He was not a scientist like me and many of the so called "authorities" in the hobby, but he knew what worked and what made sense.
You can believe what makes sense to you and do what works for you. I aplaude you because in a sense you are doing no different than me. However, I can tell you that commons sense tells me that you cannot continue to pour poop and biological waste in a sand bed, regardless of how many critters are in it. Physics tell you that one object only can occupy one space at one time. The poop may be eaten by the critter to a small degree, but the critter can't make it disappear. It has to produce waste too. Unless you have the infinite power of nature in your small glass box, my friend, it has a finite limit.
If you feel your poop collection and your critter/bug farm is doing something for you, whatever it may be, I highly encourage you to continue it. However, don't argue what you or anyone else can't and has not been able to prove. Does a DSB work? Yes, in nature they do have a role and function. Do they work in a tank or close system? It depends how you define "work". I rather spend my time enjoying my corals and fish than looking at bugs and the poop they live in.
I am not attacking anyone here. I am just stating what seems the obvious to me. You are free to disagree as I am.
