sand in regugium

docs911 · Oct 26, 2011

I have been looking around this forum and other reef forums. I see that many do not use sand in their refugiums. They have macro and some rocks. The LFS near me told me that a deep sand bed is essential for the denitrification process. I would like to redo my refugium and would like your opinions.

My refug has the bulkhead for the return pump at the skimmer compartment. I get micro bubbles pumped into the display.

Troylee · Oct 26, 2011

I would pass... It works at first then becomes a problem as detrius settles in there becomes a real pain to keep clean.... Rocks and chateo you can blast out with a power head or turkey baster etc weekly to maintain it... Fwiw a very small sand bed even deep won't do much... It's about surface area and most of the ones people try are way to small and no benefits what so ever.... I personally feel if you wanted a proper fuge it should be at least 25 percent of the display size to even have a chance of performing correctly....

ToXIc · Oct 26, 2011

yeah no sand or mud needed in there.. makes cleaning a pain..

shred5 · Oct 26, 2011

docs911 said:
I have been looking around this forum and other reef forums. I see that many do not use sand in their refugiums. They have macro and some rocks. The LFS near me told me that a deep sand bed is essential for the denitrification process. I would like to redo my refugium and would like your opinions.

My refug has the bulkhead for the return pump at the skimmer compartment. I get micro bubbles pumped into the display.

Sand Is not essential for denitrification process. Live rock is sufficient if you have a decent protein skimmer or otherways to export nutrients. I have ran bare bottom tanks and tanks with deep sand beds all just fine.

As far as your fuge goes it is up to you, kind of depends what your purpose for the fuge is to. . I have ran dsb in them and also nothing in them. For me it depends how accessible my fuge is and how easy it is to clean. If my fuge is hard to clean I go bare bottom. Personally I like sandbeds, my tanks with them always seemed way more stable and less touchy.

My favorite fuge had a really deep sand bed and the fuge was huge. It had mangroves and all kinds of different algaes growing in it. It had a pile of rocks too... It had such a diversity of life living in it. It was really neat and almost cooler than the tank it was tied too...

Dave Polzin