refugium or magic mud question?????

[thepirate]

hi, i have been recommended the magic mud system of filtration within a sump tank but i cannot find any info on this. is the magic mud system refering to a refugium???
this bit is really confusing me!!

cheers

mark

[makana]

dont worry , the sump and refugium "thing" is confusing to most everyone. yes people use magic mud in their refugium. no i dont think anyone puts anything but hardware (heaters, etc) in their "sump" unless it is a dual purpose "sump/refugium" like my system's.
i didnt add mircale mud or any biosediment or anything. just plain sugar-grain coral sand and a scoop of LS from my display tank. fuge is doing great. then again, i only have Chaetomorpha sp. in there, so it is easy to maintain.
i say go with a DSB of the finest coral-based sand you can find in the fuge. be sure to rinse it first
the finer it is the better for denitrifying bacteria. maybe even look into a plenum filter in the fuge. this is where you use the plate to a undergravel filter to create an oxygen-freen water zone under the DSB. make it like 6" deep if you can afford it.

hope this helped...

[thepirate]

thanks for the advice hat has cleared up a few things however could you explain the plenum theroy a bit more please....

i will be looking at using the sump tank in sections, do you think it would be good to have both a biolagical filtration system (bio balls) and a refuge system?

cheers

mark

[makana]

i removed my biological HOB filter when i added the sump/fuge. it became unnecessary. i dont think you need to use any other filter as long as you are skimming. the fuge will serve as a detritus settling chamber which is all that any biofilter would be doing anyway.
the plenum thing - im new to it too...maybe someone else can go into more detail aobut it...
all i know is you put the plate for the UG filter under the sandbed but you never acutally run the filter. the plate will create a "dead" waterspace for water full of nitrates to go and get denitrifyed.
bes description i can give...sorry

hope this helps.