Amount of sand, and what kind...

[WarDaddy]

I am working though my Sump and fuge design, I am close to being happy with it, now to get a quote on the glass...

I am going to have a 55 gallon with a lot of live rock. My fuge design has DSB, macro algee and a little live rock, and some animal that will help maintain the sand bed. There will be rubble in the inflow section of the fuge.

The fuge will be about 14" square. If I go DSB of 4-5 inches do I need to go deep in the display tank? I was hoping for 1 to 1.5 inches in the display. I was going to put FINE sand in fuge and a medium course sand in the display.

My LFS is going out of busniess and has 50lb bags of sand for $20. 1 bag will give me about 1" in the main. question is how many.

Does this sound reasonable, or should I go fine everywhere, or mix it up, layers?

[StripesTheEel]

I'd go a DSB in both, as that will create more beneficial bacteria. And if you're going to have a lot of live rock, there will be a lot of critters that would jump into the sand and seed it, and in no time it'll be live. More sand the better.

[seaham358]

I'd keep with what you have planned. I have 3" in my reef and 4 in my fowlr and I like the look of the reef better. IMO seeing 4-6 of sand in the front of the tank and when the dinitrifications starts you will be looking at the black nasty area under the sand. 1 lb per gallon is fine. Also get 1-2 lbs of lr per gal and you'll be all set. Get some LR rubble for the fuge, its cheaper then big pieces...