Crushed coral in the sump-- bad idea?

Sand=Bad, Crushed Coral=Good. 

That also begs the question -- you said bad for sand in the sump? Is that because sand becomes a phosphate sink/ nitrate trap.

If this applies to a sump does it also apply to a slow moving refugium? If so should I strongly consider pulling out my dsb in my refugiums.

I ask because I am starting to get the feeling that my tank has started the countdown to when it nukes itself. I first had a horrible time controlling a red algea (2 years). Then a ton of bubble algea grew and cyano grew. I have cleaned out the bubble algea a few times and added some chemiclean for my cyano. Now I have replace bulbs and am staring on a hair algea growth kick. Ive decided that I need to do something drastic to take care of my problem but I don't know what that is. My corals look great, but my tank is a crap algea growing magnet. It seems when I get one algea under control another takes its place (red algea --> bubble algea --> now hair algea)

btw tank specks -- nitrates test 0, nitrite - 0, ammonia 0, alk -- unsure at the moment, calcium over 500 during last test but is headed down. I have done a bunch of water changes over the last 6 months to no avail to slowing the algea growth.



Edited by Kevin - February 09 2007 at 6:25pm

Many seem to think that DSBs are good (until they nuke your tank after a while). I haven't seen any evidence to support this, but lets assume they are correct.

If this is the case, it makes sense to have a sandbed in the system that can periodically be changed. This means a refugium that can be isolated from the display while the sandbed is replaced.

I would remove a small cup of the sandbed (before messing with it) to seed the new/washed sandbed with the organisms

IMO, the ideal reef system would have one display tank and several refugiums with DSBs. The sand in each refugium would be cleaned once a year or so. They would be cleaned at different times so you always have a few refugiums with undisturbed sandbeds.

Im curious as to why Mr. Blundell suggests crushed coral over sand


BTW, an excellent addition to a refugium or sump is rock rubble. Try to finds some dry florida aragonite rock at a LFS and crush it with a hammer. A pile of rock rubble provides a home and breeding area for pods. This is the best way I have found to get a huge pod population

Hmm.

DSB's good/bad/ugly...  I'm kind of tired of the argument.  (No offense, AR.)

I have crushed coral, just a normal layer, and two good helpings of live sand from other aquariums. 

At this point it's getting harder to change it out.  Adam's a smart guy though, so I'm not so worried now.  Adam's always come to my rescue. 


Edited by chris.rogers - February 11 2007 at 6:43pm