What would you do?

O.K. everyone,

I know all the arguements about DSB, BB, DSB/plenum and to be honest I still cant decide which way to go so instead I thought I would have a little fun and give everyone what I have and see how you would set it up.

This is the largest tank I have ever done so I appreciate everyones input as to how they would set it up; especially since most of you on here have much more experiance than I do.

My Tanks is a 125g.. Tank Length = 72 inches, Tank Width = 18 inches, Tank Height = 22 inches.

I have a 30g tank I will change over to a refuge but I also have a 20g sump available as well.

What I would really like to know is how you would fill each with sand and why? Would you use both the refuge and sump or just 1 of them? Any advice is very much appreciated!

Thanks in advance!

 

I would use both, putting live sand in my fuge, and useing the sump for my skimmer ectras, I also put ph rock in my sump, as my ph was on the low side. The rock brought it up and stablized it. I have a hang on fuge, and love it. I have live sand and plants in it. I like the looks, and have occasionally put problem children in it.(damsels) What ever you decide good luck, and Id like to see pics when you are ready.

 

I put a shallow sand bed in my DT and a deep sand bed in my fuge which is a separate tank disconnected from my sump. If I ever want to change the sand or if the DSB crashes I can disconnect it from the sump an DT without having to rip up the DT. IMO a DSB in the DT doesn't look good.

 

Thanks for the input dees reef and pgreef, much appreciated. So it seems most are just using a couple inches sand in the MT and either putting a deep sand bed in refuge or just more live rock. Would I be right in assuming this?

 

That's what I did.

 

i would go bb in the dt with about 200 lbs of rock (i like marco rock...great price and looks great). i would put a dsb in the 30 gallon (4 inches of mudd or 6 inches of very fine sand) with very low turn over rate. i would use the 20 gallon for the sump (for skimmer,heater etc...)
the reason i like bb in dt is because it takes alot of flow to keep waste and whatnot circulating enough to go out the overflow and even then you still wont get it all but way more than if you had sand because of the sand storms

 

I'm not a big fan of bare bottoms. Wait, I take that back.:yelrotflm

 

LOL.. +1

Thanks reeferdude for your input as well!

 

Didnt get as many responses as I had hoped but thank you to all who have posted.

So with the responses I did get it seems DSB in the main tank is becoming obsolete? I assume this is a safety measure in case the DSB crashes which would make sense.

With that being said, how does this sound: Main tank 2 inches of CaribSea "Seaflor special Grade Reef Sand" then in refuge or sump just run more live rock or maybe live rock and live sand?

 

coral crazy

if it where me and I had the equipement you have I would do as follows

DT - SSB - maybe up to 2cm at most -aesthetics and wrasse sleeping quarters
Fuge - DSB - possibly mud rather than sand but both are options IMO

I would run a sump , with course filter media after overflow to trap detrius- that can be rinsed and changed often preventing larger particles adding to the bio load.

I would have the sump in addition to the fuge as its a handy location for Skimmer, heater, Phosphate reactor etc located in and gives extra water volume to the system which is good

I would have only 5% - 10% of my total water volume going through the fuge per hour - slow flow through fuge to give the bacteria and also the macro algae time to process nutrients

thats what I would do if it where my set up

Steve