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Ryan, I would do a shallow sand bed no more than a few inches or less.Unless you want to keep some wrasses then I would do a few more inches.Deep sand beds can get risky if you ever stir it up and release "gases" or sediment.Rubble would be best left in yr sump tank to help raise copeapods.Mud is also a refugium option.These are just my opinions of course.And I really have no idea or experience in reef keeping,but I did stay at a holiday inn express once
DSB in the sump, and you dont need rubble IMO in the sump. I assume you will have chaeto or other macro, the pods will do fine in there.... and dont forget to through some sort of sponge into your sump or a bag of ceramic disks and just let them sit in there, so you can instant cycle a hospital tank.
I really think it depends on the dt and what you intend to keep. Sps I would stay away from dsb and rubble as these can cause problems. You get the picture. I have always wanted to try the mud for some reason.
still havent made final decisions on this. tony (shipwrecked) is loaning me his glass hole saw to cut the hole,
i have some dark acrylic at work, im going to make a 3 sided, 6"x6"x6" Overflow silicone into the corner of the tank
with 1" groves cut in top edge to alow for the water to flow into, then a 90deg elbow facing down into the box
so as to work as a weir.
if i used a 1 1/2" bulkhead, how far down from the top rim should i make the center point?
if i put it up so the bulkhead is right at the bottom edge of the plastic trim on outside,
that puts the center point at about 2 inches down from edge.
this gives the box, 4 inches from bottom of the overflow, to the center point of the weir for a good flow,
of about 700-800 gph, this is a 75g.
and with a mag 7, i should be ok.
most likely going with deep sand bed, and chaeto, which i have in a hob now
I would also keep it clean on the bottom with only macro. Sooner or later all fuges need a cleanng . When you want to clean the built up detritus from it this will be the easiest way . If you are set on a dsb i would plumb in a second small tank that can just be removed when the time comes . This will allow you to change out the dsb when it needs to be done without releasing anything into the main tank. I always try to think what will be needed in the future to keep the tank healthy .
For what it's worth. I went with rubble in my fuge section. I'm pulling it out this this weekend. First it is ripping the cheating apart. When it tumbles pieces get stuck on the rubble and are ending up in my DT. Second since I'm running without a filter sock it just seems to collecting detritus, and it's a pain to clean the section. I'm probably gonna go with just a bare bottom since its really not big enough for a DSB to be of any use.