Fine sand in refugium or no?

boboyo · Feb 16, 2021

My first tank is a 2 month old sumpless 55g where I did the mistake to take fine sand (flies all over the place and impossible to clean as the sand is lighter than detritus)

I'm reusing everything I can for my 125g + sump upgrade but having fine sand is out of the question for me. Theres a lot of older threads where theres mixed feelings... The info on reef tanks is constantly changing so I'm wondering if its a good idea to put sand in my refugium or just put rocks.

The main pro of keeping my old sand is my huge copepod population (I have a mandarin that only eats pods and hes doing great after a month)

I also have my own DIY copepod production in case my hob filter refugium didnt work out to multiply pods but it did & I noticed the business opportunity of selling them as I contacted my LFS the other day to ask how big is the demand when they posted on fb that theyre ordering pods. Literally NO ONE has pods on demand in my city and I had to drive 2h to get some aquamarine pods that were mostly dead (god knows how long theyve been in the fridge). My lfs pod supplier is also aquamarine. They do get lots of demand too as they sell lots of mandarins. I also dont live in buttfck nowhere, I live in the 2nd largest canadian city...

Sorry I got sidetracked - sand or no sand refugium? If it does build a lot of detriuts, would it be a bad idea to add a weak powerhead and/or nassarius snails to shift up the sand?

Jekyl · Feb 16, 2021

I'm just going to put a biomedia block

Tamberav · Feb 16, 2021

Just rocks... a fuge gets filthy and it’s nice to siphon out the debris.

Ippyroy · Feb 16, 2021

I would highly recommend rinsing the sand heavily before reusing so the pods would be gone. If you do it, add a diverse CUC of worms and microhermits and detritus eating worms. I have bristle worms in my fuge with sand. It is before the skimmer and after 9 months I have zero worms in my DT and still have clean sand and a huge pod population in the fuge. I only have chato in it. I rarely use filter socks. I say do it.

Pistol Peet · Feb 16, 2021

boboyo said:
My first tank is a 2 month old sumpless 55g where I did the mistake to take fine sand (flies all over the place and impossible to clean as the sand is lighter than detritus)

I'm reusing everything I can for my 125g + sump upgrade but having fine sand is out of the question for me. Theres a lot of older threads where theres mixed feelings... The info on reef tanks is constantly changing so I'm wondering if its a good idea to put sand in my refugium or just put rocks.

The main pro of keeping my old sand is my huge copepod population (I have a mandarin that only eats pods and hes doing great after a month)

I also have my own DIY copepod production in case my hob filter refugium didnt work out to multiply pods but it did & I noticed the business opportunity of selling them as I contacted my LFS the other day to ask how big is the demand when they posted on fb that theyre ordering pods. Literally NO ONE has pods on demand in my city and I had to drive 2h to get some aquamarine pods that were mostly dead (god knows how long theyve been in the fridge). My lfs pod supplier is also aquamarine. They do get lots of demand too as they sell lots of mandarins. I also dont live in buttfck nowhere, I live in the 2nd largest canadian city...

Sorry I got sidetracked - sand or no sand refugium? If it does build a lot of detriuts, would it be a bad idea to add a weak powerhead and/or nassarius snails to shift up the sand?

I used biobricks either Brightwell or algaebarn

boboyo · Feb 16, 2021

Ippyroy said:
I would highly recommend rinsing the sand heavily before reusing so the pods would be gone. If you do it, add a diverse CUC of worms and microhermits and detritus eating worms. I have bristle worms in my fuge with sand. It is before the skimmer and after 9 months I have zero worms in my DT and still have clean sand and a huge pod population in the fuge. I only have chato in it. I rarely use filter socks. I say do it.

Why would you recommend to rinse it? Not much detritus couldve accumulated in 2 months (including the initial cycle period). I just want to transfer my livestock in my bigger tank asap without really affecting my current biofilter too much so I dont have to re cycle everything. Anyway that was my main of reusing the sand

Pistol Peet · Feb 16, 2021

Ippyroy said:
I would highly recommend rinsing the sand heavily before reusing so the pods would be gone. If you do it, add a diverse CUC of worms and microhermits and detritus eating worms. I have bristle worms in my fuge with sand. It is before the skimmer and after 9 months I have zero worms in my DT and still have clean sand and a huge pod population in the fuge. I only have chato in it. I rarely use filter socks. I say do it.

If you have bristle worms in your refugium I would be positive they are in your tank as well

Ippyroy · Feb 16, 2021

Pistol Peet said:
If you have bristle worms in your refugium I would be positive they are in your tank as well

I have taken the rocks completely out a couple of times and I vacuum my sand constantly. No signs of one yet.

Ippyroy · Feb 16, 2021

boboyo said:
Why would you recommend to rinse it? Not much detritus couldve accumulated in 2 months (including the initial cycle period). I just want to transfer my livestock in my bigger tank asap without really affecting my current biofilter too much so I dont have to re cycle everything. Anyway that was my main of reusing the sand

Two months worth might not be bad. Stir it up and if a cloud arises you need to rinse. No cloud at all and you are good to go.