DSB depth in small refugium?...

[thebigblue]

i am adding a small (12"x12"x19" tall) refugium to my sump of my 125 gal reef...the display has a 5" DSB...the fuge will be setup next to the under tank sump and will gravity feed into the sump...

i was planning on adding a DSB (depth unknown) in the refugium, realizing that i should seed this bed with some live sand from a couple sources if possible...

everything has really been going great with my tank (setup for 9 months)...and i dont want to do something wrong with the fuge setup and screw things up!...

so...

how deep should this relatively small refugium DSB be?...

is there even a benefit/need for a DSB in a fuge this small?...

or are they just personal preference/cosmetic?...

is there any risk to making this refugium DSB too deep or too shallow, which in some way will screw up the DSB ive worked so hard to establish in my display?....

thanks

brad

 

[fishfarmer]

is there even a benefit/need for a DSB in a fuge this small?...

I think for the size of your main system bed I wouldn't worry too much about establishing a DSB in such a small space. I'd put a couple of inches of fine sand and rock and macroalgae. I tried a small 4" bed in my sump that was similar in size. I really didn't see the worm trails, bubbles, various colors and other things that I've seen happening in my larger main tank sand bed. I had so much caulerpa rooted in that bed that I don't think the surface of the bed was being turned too often and basically became an area for cyano to grow, which I regularly siphoned out.

 

[2poor2reef]

The primary function of a dsb is denitrification. If you aren't currently having trouble with nitrates the I would forego the refugium dsb and dedicate as much of it as possible to macroalgae and critter production.