Hi Deb,
I do love the look of the DSB,but i have really come to think the benifits may not outweigh the potential long term problems. (more so in the main display)
This last sand bed i have had has followed me through several tanks and some of it is over 5 yrs old.
I have always thought i had a healthy sandbed,but lately i have fought with redish cyano trying to cover the substrate,and even with the addition of goodies from a rock curing vat it still had slowly gone down hill.
I did add new sand aswell, but i couldnt place the blame soully on that reason either.
I also am sure the critter population for the sandbed turnover was excellent,i had a tigertail cuke,conch,about a million stomatella and other sand dwelling snails.
Yet when i just tore the sandbed down,it seemed just like a a big cesspit of sulphide and detritus.
I understand these anoxic portions are supposed to be there,but it hardly seems a benifit to the system water quality.
I have no doubt that a sand bed adds a whole range of benificial life to the system, but after removing atleast 200lbs (ya,i was panicking) from there the corals or fish look nor act any different than before....even after a transfer into a large tub.
I guess it will have to be a little more long term before i could say that there was a significant benifit in removing it, and im yet unsure if nitrates wont rise like crazy..but i would guess that a small,managable and semi-routinley siphoned sandbed in your refugium would be just as benificial, Live rock accomplishing the rest.
( I cringe at the thought of all the guys right now that would like to jump on me for saying so
)
In the future i will be setting up another reef,and i know I wont have a sandbed any deeper than enouph to cover the bottom glass, even if in the end it is only for peace of mind.
I really believe it would be ,overall just as sucssesful a system or even moreso than a tank with a DSB.
Alright.....Let me have it.