Hopefully easy Fuge questions

I am going to go with the 40 gallon and put the 10 (or 20 if it will fit) into it to use as the refugium. A couple more questions:

1) why use cat litter? can I start with gravel on the bottom and dump the argonite sand on top of that?

2) Is thicker better? once I am putting in 4 -5 inches, why not put in 6 +?

3) If I have two standpipes, each that can handle 600 GPH (1 inch) is it a risk to use 1,000 of flow instead of 600? Is 1,000 that much better than 600?

Thanks for all the help. Has made setting this thing up significantly easier.

 

Before you decide on the sand, what do you want the fuge to do? Just nitrate reduction or pod generation. If you want better pod generation leave the sand out, use some rubble or marbles and lot of room for chaeto to grow. If you want max nitrate reduction, well, you still want lots of room for chaeto to grow, but you can do a DSB, keep it fine and make sure you clean the detritus off of it regularly.

Kim

 

Nitrate reduction is my major concern. The pods would be good as a secondary food source, but I'm most concerned with reducing nitrates. It seems from what I have read that I need to go 4-6 inches with fine sand. I was going to go with sugar sized oolite. Is that fin enough? I was planning on putting in about 4 inches and then adding live sand on top of that (to have some little organisms to help move the sand around). I will have a 10 a 20 and a 40 that I can use for this. A couple of options would be:

1) Put the DSB in the 10 gallon, put up eggcrate before the pump, and keep the chaeto in the 40 before the eggcrate.

2) Same as above but put a 20 in for the chaeto (if both fit). The tank would drain into the DSB and the return pump would redirect some of the water back into the chaeto

3) Toss the chaeto into the 10 or 20 with the DSB.

I have not purchased the pump yet, so I have more options with that. I can get one that would give me about 600 GPH or about 1000 GPH after head loss. I have been unable to get anyone to answer if the 1000 is risky (it would use both standpipes to drain) so I will likley go with the 600, and divert enough of the water back into the sump so that one standpipe will be adequate. I may do the same thing with the 1000. The extra flow should help keep the deritus off the sandbed, but I'm not sure its worth the added expense for the pump / electricity when I will likely have to clean the top of the sand bed either way.