My experiances with a plenum are mixed. They seemed to keep my tank stable and kept all the fish healthy. But I seemed to have an onging algea problem that I could not get rid of. Also if you have any diggng fish, forget about it. Even with the window screening separating the layers, it seems to affect water parameters. Also you loose about 2 inches in height of your tank just from the plenum. So you loose as much as 6-8 inches after the gravel. One really good thing about the plenum was that you can sort of neglect your tank and not have too much change in your water paramenters. My 135 g tank was self sustaining for 6 months with no feeding or water changes. Just topping up the water. I think that the deep sand Bed without plenum works far better than the plenum. But that is just my personal experience.
Simon
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New Tank! Some LR, lots LS, some fish, big pump, fat skimmer, bright lights, and salty water!:0
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