Who has a refugium with DSB?

[Pedal Dangit]

Been lurking around and searching, but not finding many posts about Deep Sand Bed refugiums. It looks like most tanks I see are set up with just a small refugium area in the sump with some chaeto rolling around. I'm looking for examples of working DSB tanks, could be either a refugium or in the display. I mean some people are still using DSBs right? I think it would be nice to have a thread on here with a discussion on what has worked and for how long, and ones that have not worked and thoughts as to why not. I'm also curious of any "add-on" refugium tanks, what flow you have going through it, and pics of your plumbing if you have one.

I'm in the planning stage of my build and my idea was to use a separate 30 gallon tank next to my sump as my refugium and to put in 5-6" of sugar sized sand. In the 120 gallon display I would have a 1-2" of sand. The refugium will be parallel to the sump with 1/2 the flow going into the refuge and 1/2 to the skimmer in the sump.

 

[Sorcha2]

I've had a 65g dsb tank set up for a little over a year. It has dunes on each side that are probably 8+inches deep. The center is about an inch deep. No refugium or skimmer. It's very lightly stocked. It's centered around keeping a mandarin goby with minimal work and cost. There is probably 40pounds of rock in there with a good bit of rubble and shells. I feed a dry food once a day and shock feed a mix of frozen food once or twice a week. Dsb have a couple of advantages. They look better/more natural. They can work some what like live rock. They promote all sorts of microfuana and you can use them as a nutrient sink. The problem is that using them as a nutrient sink only works for a couple years and there are a lot of better options out there for that. You actually need a pretty large one to really get any sort of benefit. They trap detritus so they really aren't a great idea for super clean or super dirty tanks. It works for me but I wouldn't recommend it for most people unless they are trying to keep specific species that benefit from the dsb.

 

[FishTruck]

Agree. I sucked mine out with a shop vac after running it for three years - after battling some nuisance algae all year. I just filled the compartment with live rock instead. I did other things too, but, I believe getting rid of the DSB helped. I do miss looking at the bristle worm tracks under the sand though!

 

[Sallstrom]

In this thread you'll find some different examples on DSB's.
https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/controllable-deep-sand-beds-a-discussion-thread.424449/

/ David

 

[fermentedhiker]

My 36x24x24 cuboid has a full depth and full width overflow on the back(it's a peninsula tank) and since the water level is just below that of the DT I decided to fill the void with a DSB of PFS. Been running around a year. Nitrates are always barely detectable in spite of heavy feeding. Phosphates are my current issue. It's always something right.

 

[Pedal Dangit]

In this thread you'll find some different examples on DSB's.
https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/controllable-deep-sand-beds-a-discussion-thread.424449/

/ David

y

Yes, I saw that. thank you. I have been reading that, but it seemed to be more specifically about plenum style DSB?