New sump refugium question

[chark]

Deep Sand Beds (DSBs) are the way to go here along with some good macro. I am going to be somewhat of a devils advocate here when I say that caulerpa is not the right choice of macro. Caulerpa will take over your tank if it gets in the display and it can also go sexual in your tank. Chaeto is your best bet. For aesthetics, you can employ the use of mangroves, but for the to be entirely effective you would need quite a few of them. You will need to run a light over your fuge opposite the light cycle of your display. This will help with any ph/alk swings throughout the night.

As far as your sandbed goes, I would recommend getting cups of sand from some established tanks. If you want to order some GOOD stuff full of life for your tank go to www.GARF.org and order some GARF GRUNGE. That will REALLY kickstart your system.

Remember to run unskimmed water through the fuge at a slow rate of flow. This increases the dwell time of the water in the fuge thus "scrubbing" the water clean. You can just have it overflow back into the sump.

For fun, www.myspace.com/caulerpa ... Happy Reefin'!

Nassarius snails are great in a refugium as they like to burrow in the sand and keep at least the top turned.

Lastly, if you are going to re-do the sump, a good idea is to try Pressure Locking Sump Baffles. They look really handy.

I am not sure I understand about the plumbing. Are you saying to use a separate refugium from the sump? Do you just split the water that would go to the sump? I was going to build my refugium in the sump. With overflow and skimmer to refugium to return in the same sump. Is that bad? What do you suggest?