Does anyone still run a DSB or any type of sand bed in their fuge?

[yagerboy]

I'm considering moving some sand from my DT to the refugium section of my sump.  Does anyone still 

practice this method or has it been determined to be more detrimental than helpful?

[CallMeJus]

I run Miracle Mud and love it. I (try) to change it out yearly just about.

There’s people on both sides of the fence in regards to MM but this is my second tank I’ve used it on, it’s been up 2 years and I’ve only seen benefits from it


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[davelin315]

Nothing wrong with having sand but deep sand beds require a lot of upkeep and in a refugium would not be very advisable given the low flow that you would probably want to maintain.  Their efficacy is questionable (I ran one in a large garbage can and was never able to get any sort of success out of it) and there are a lot of new methods for nitrate and phosphate removal today that are far more effective with a lot less effort.

[yagerboy]

Thanks all.  

[treesprite]

The only tank I ever had with perfect water and only about 6 water changes a year, no skimmer or anything at all, had a 4 or 5 inch DSB in it. I have never been able to achieve that water quality consistently in any other tank, which I attribute to the fact that I haven't had a DSB in any other tank (my current tank has an in-tank DSB, but sand is only a few months old, needs about 6 months).

[astroboy]

Three or four years ago the Chesapeake Cichlid Club had a speaker on using rock wool in a way analogous to how a DSB is supposed to work. There have been some big studies in Europe on this for sewage treatment, seems to work great. The basic idea is that you get a much bigger anareobic zone with a rock wool sump sort of thing than you do with a DSB. Also, flow volume is more easily controlled. I'll see if I can find the articles, there are a couple of PhD dissertations on the sewage treatment aspect of this. It seems you can get nitrates down to zero fairly easily. 

 

There were a few saltwater people at the talk. They were fascinated by this; the freshwater people not so much at all. You can do it with freshwater systems but it seems to be easier with saltwater. 

 

I tried it. I had two problems. 1) I was using a 5 gallon bucket, I think you need something like 30 gallons for it to really work. 2) I was too cheap to get a peristaltic pump, you need a turnover of 6-10 hours and I was doing more than that. In the end, I just didn't have the space for the set up. I never had much luck with a DSB in my display tank. I've since gone bare bottom and I'm much happier with the results.