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| I have the option of having one but not the other which one would u choose and why
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| RDSB above all if you expect nitrates to accumulate (weak water changes, heavy bioload, not proficient at tuning skimmer to produce daily, etc) If you are sure you can control nitrates easily, then add a refugium for its ability to produce incomparable natural food for fishes and filter feeders in thge display. To produce these, however, I am presuming you can resist putting any animals (shrimp, fish or coral, etc) in the refugium else they will decimate the microfauan or at least reduce it severely. But do not make the mistake of believing that a traditional refugium and a RDSB do similar tasks. Not even close (unless the refugium is large enough to have a DSB).
. Anthony Calfo
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thank you for the quick reply anthony the tank will be a heavily stocked 135 gallon fowlr with a dsb in a bucket placed in sump with a sand depth of 9-10 inches
the bucket will be fed by the return on my skimmer, this points straight into the bucket should i find a way to disperse this so it doesn t blow into the sand ?
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| please do try to disperse it via a teed effluent (or double tee) or even use of a coarse filter sponge. I am concerned though that 9-10" at the bottom of a 5 gall bucket will hardly do anything for a tank this size. Is there any reason you cannot fill the bucket to near the top with sand? Assuming you can, you can bypass the skimmer feed if needed and just employ a slow flow powerhead to feed sump water up to the bucket and let it overflow right back into the sump.
. Anthony Calfo
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the reason for only 9-10 inches is to accomodate the height of the skimmer returns as i have very limited height in this tank i had to but the bucket down in order to make it fit and also so that i can do away with additional pumps as i am on a very strict budget with this tank
the bucket itself is square vs. round so it will at least hold a bit more volume than a round bucket, it is possible for me to add a full bucket that can be run outside the sump but this is something that would jsut have to wait a short time possibly a month or so i should also mention this is a new tank and right now has a very low fish load for its size
with those things taken into account should i just go with the refugium and plumb in the rdsb at a later date
sorry to keep bugging i am trying to figure out how i should do my baffles in my sump something that is happening early this week
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| the space allotted is so small either way that my advice to you is actually to forego both and just enjoy more sump space. It will be far more practical here than having a tiny RDSB or tiny refugium and an awkward sump ta'boot. You can address nutrients and nitrates by just doing larger weekly water changes. Many other benefits for having a regular water change schecule.
. Anthony Calfo
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thank you very much for the help anthony i may add a small refugium not su much for export but for grwoing macro to feed future tangs
there is a brewery located near me that sells food grade containers that are 12 gallons really cheap liek $10, perhap in the future i will get one of those and some uniseals and set it up ouside of the tank
once again thank you for your assistance
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| understood... and you are very welcome my friend. In light of your suggestion for keeping macroalgae for tangs, let me suggest you grow an edible variety (Gracilaria gets high marks... needs bright enough light to turn pale red, even orange-yellow, else dark red color indicates low light) and keep it in the open sump proper by screening it off. This will afford a larger/safer sump volume. Gracilaria needs no substrate.
. Anthony Calfo
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Let me jump in here for a moment and ask a question, Anthony.
I am in the process of getting a 55g tank setup. I have installed a RDSB into the system powered via a maxijet powerhead in my sump. The RDSB consists of 8 inches of 1 sand in one of those 5g water containers that you buy at fish stores. So overall, it is about a 10x10x8 (almost) cube of sand.
How much help do you think that will do at keeping Nitrates under control in my tank? I noticed your comments about RDSB size above in this thread and grew slightly concerned that I was going to all this effort for nothing?
Anyhow, I will try to post some pics soon. I am really happy with how the mechanics of the setup have worked out so far. 
Paul Thompson
South Ascot, Berkshire, England
Board - West London Reef Club
Webmaster - Central Oklahoma Marine Aquarium Society
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| cheers Paul ...its hard for me to say without knowing your bioload and feeding habits, but I think this volume of sand can be helpful. I just wonder why not fill the bucket? You don't even need to prop or redrill the bucket if already plumbed low. Just plumb the interior bulkhead side with a standpipe to raise the water level. The effluent plumbing can remain the same.
. Anthony Calfo
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