Deep Sea Bed Question

[karaim]

I am thinking of setting up a DSB in my 120 gallon reef tank. I was at my LFS today and the employee at the LFS told me to set up the LFS in the Refugium and not the main tank. His reasoning was that the fish and inverts would disrupt the DSB in the main tank.

I was actually going to set up a DSB in both the refugium and the main tank. Does anyone have a DSB in the main tank? Any problems?

 

[andywg]

Provided the DSB is deep enough (think 6" as the bare minimum) then it should be fine. The biggest thing agaisnt using a DSB in a main tank is the loss of so much space. I have always remotely located a DSB in the sump.

 

[karaim]

Provided the DSB is deep enough (think 6" as the bare minimum) then it should be fine. The biggest thing agaisnt using a DSB in a main tank is the loss of so much space. I have always remotely located a DSB in the sump.

If I set it up in the refugium, should I still get sand in the main tank? Or should I used crushed corals, or nothing? And if I should still use sand, then how much of it should I use?

As far as the refugium is concerned, how deep should I make it? The loss of space in the refugium isn't a problem.

 

[ox5477]

the crushed coral would help buffer the water... but I think it all depends more on your preference and fish choices.... if you have digging gobies or blennies then prob sand would be better... but if nothing will be digging around in the substarte, then you could go for the crushed coral IMO.

Def go with the DSB in the reugium of your sump... some chaeto and a few pieces of LR along with it will be a good fuge I think... sort of what I'm planning for the future

Ox

 

[amstar15]

As per the sand, I would put about 40-60 lbs of a slightly coarser substrate in the tank, just enough to hide the glass. - (An inch or so) I personally use carib Sea's "SeaFlor" aragonite. For the Sump (mine is a 55 gallon tank with baffels, Either Fiji Pink or Sugar Sizr oolitoc would be what I would use. Not knowing the sump design, it's hard to suggest how many pounds you will need. The remote Deep sand bed needs to be at least 6" deep so I would guess 2-3 40 pound bags should be close.