Sand Bed or No Sand Bed in the fuge

[salmon alley]

I'm curious to know if most people are setting up a sand bed in their refugium or not.

What are the advantages and disadvantages of having DSB in the fuge vs. a bare bottom?

 

[sjvl51]

I think it depends upon the size of your refuge. I seem to remember in one of Dr. Ron's posts/articles that there is a minimum square footage before the DSB would work but I don't remember what it was.

If you are planning on stocking macro algae that float (ie chaeto) then the sand bed serves little purpose if too small to help in the removal of nitrates. If you are palnning on stocking macro algae that is rooted (some caulerpas), then you should have some sand.

JMO

Vickie

 

[DensityMan]

Sand, even a thin covering, should help in propogating worms and bugs as well...

 

[salmon alley]

I'm using a 65 gallon Rubbermaid Stock tank as my fuge, and the sand bed would be a good 5" deep.
I'm leaning towards going with the sand, b/c I'd like to propagate pods and such.