Pet Forum / Aquaria / Marine Reef / May 2004

I have successfully built a sump this Sunday and as of last night it
is happily 'sumping' away under my tank.  I pretty much copied Marc's
idea for the sump under his 55 and it worked out very well.  Most of
my joins look terrible compared to his (full of tiny bubbles and
larger pockets of air) but it holds water.  I used weld-on 3 in 85F
very humid weather so that may be the problem.  To be safe, I went
over every joint with #16.

My question is, in my refugium (about 10g) how deep should I make the
sand bed.  I have plenty of southdown aragonite sand and already put
about 1/2" in, but I am thinking I should make it at least 1" deep.
My 75g display tank already has a 4" Southdown DSB so I don't need the
refugium to have a DSB, just enough to support refugium life properly.
Any suggestions?

Plus, if Marc reads this, thanks for putting your 55's sump online,
the design was the perfect solution for my 75g and its crappy AGA
stand.  I'm still VERY new do the SW/Reef hobby, this sump should help
make my adventure go a little smoother.  I have pictures I'd like to
put online soon so if you're interested, I can post a link.

Thanks!
Dieter