how deep is your DSB!

[ohio reefer]

i have my "fuge" built how i want it, now it's time to add sand and i'm getting conflicting answers. please let me know how much sand is needed for my 27.5 gallon fuge. my tank is 120 gall.

thanks a lot!!

mark

[Bang Guy]

What's the footprint on the fuge and what are the benefits you want to gain from it?

For a 'fuge smaller that a 30 gallon I recommend no more than 1/2" of sand. It's just too small to maintain a healthy deep sand bed.

[SquishyFish]

Thats interesting Bang...why would the foot print effect the DSB that much?

Squishy

[scuba_steve]

yea my guess would be better to mabe fill the 30 half full of sand and have the other half for ya macros !!

[ohio reefer]

it is a 55gal basically cut in half. one half fuge and one half sump.

[Bang Guy]

Originally Posted by SquishyFish

Thats interesting Bang...why would the foot print effect the DSB that much?

Squishy

A healthy sand bed required a large diversity of sand bed inhabitants. Many of the beneficial critters require open sand beds without being close to objects like tank walls. A refugium with a small footprint will be unable to keep these animals and the sandbed will lose a lot of its diversity fairly quickly. Without this diversity problems may develop like Anaerobic areas and even dead zones where bacteria have glued the sand grains together.

[SquishyFish]

Makes sense.

[ohio reefer]

bang guy what would you recomend in my case.

foot print 24"long by 18"wide

thanks

mark

[Bang Guy]

for 24" X 18" I think 4" would work well as long as it includes some high quality live sand. I thought this was half a 55 gallon? Wouldn't that only be 13" wide?

[ohio reefer]

yes you're right my mistake . i was at work and was guessing. still 4"? can i mix live sand with southdown? or should it be all live sand?

[Bang Guy]

I'd suggest Southdown on the bottom and then at least 1/2" of live sand (LIVE sand, not the bagged stuff).

[scuba_steve]

if you have the money buy all "real" live sand !! if not do what bang said !!

[ohio reefer]

thanks guys!!!!