Mineral Mud or Sand bed in refugium???

either one will work. I think mircale mud is more commercial hype myself, but that is just my opinion. I would just use sand, as much rubble & macro as you can. Put a few crabs & shrimp in there as well.

GL
Craig

 

I agree the mud is hype. I would just use the space for chaeto.

 

You don't need LR or sand and you have limited space so if I were you I would use the space for just chaeto.

 

i got cheato for ya but wont be around this weekend going out of state for family thing, its 6 bucks a handful at adams though if you wanna buy some.

 

I will have to strongly disagree. I would definitely put live sand in your refugium and a good amount of LR with rubble. A refugium is a refuge for things to grow hence the name. This is what a refugium is for as well as macro algae. You wan't rock and sand for critters to grow such as Pods ... lots and lots of pods. Not to mention more beneficial bacteria. I can give you a start of fuge sand/mud to get your culture started.
Please, more opinions on this, but my opinion is a bare fuge is a waste of good space for things to grow without getting eaten immediately.

 

I have 2 hob fuges with no sand no rock full of cheato and pods.I would guss that he has live rock and pods somewhere in his system they will get to the fuge. And they don't need your help Joel. So joel says fill your 12x6 area with rocks and sand LOL won't be much room left for cheato tho.

 

I would go an inch or 2 of sand, some small rubble, & then cheato on top. pack that baby full as you can

I even have peppermint shrimp in mine as the breed alot & release lots of good food into the tank to be eaten

 

Justin, A refugium isn't required for success, people do things successfully many different ways including a refugium with only macro. And other people fail and have a complete refugium. A refugium is used for many things and if you are going to do it why not get the most impact. 12x6 is small, but rocks and sand sink and macro algae normally float a bit staying in the upper part of the chamber leaving a space between for a few smal fish and/or shrimp.
Read up on what others we consider experts say. Here are a few articles:
http://saltaquarium.about.com/cs/aq...041400.htm
Bob Fenner
http://www.wetwebmedia.com/refugium.htm
Here is a thread with Anthony Calfo:
http://reefcentral.com/forums/showt...did=462212
Do some other searches, there is plenty of information out there on building refugiums.

 

I agree you need some substrate in there. The good thing about mud is they recomend only needing 1" of it to make it successful. The idea behind the mud is it feeds the macro to feed on disolved minerals in your tank, sort of like vodka dosing feeds the bacteria to feed on waste. I've done a bunch of research on the mud and read many reviews and it's more than just hype, a lot of people out there swear by it. I'm going to redo my sump when I move and am going to get some mineral mud for the refugium. With an effective sand bed, it has to be deep, 4"+, but with the mud it only needs an inch or two, so with your small space I'd recommend mud. Good luck with what ever you decide...

 

For anyone out there building a new sump, the articles/forum posts that Joel has put links for are really good.  Just bringing this post back to the top as it has some great info in it.
Also a reminder to use the forum search feature before asking a question (yeah, I know I'm guilty too /DesktopModules/ActiveForums/themes/_default/emoticons/blush.gif)  ...if you have a question, there's a pretty good chance that someone else has asked it before and an answer has been provided.
--AJ