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Perhaps, but the reference to carbon and sponges would be more confusing if that's the case.
I'm not sure what gelbstoff is. But once my sponges really got going I no longer had to run carbon for water clarity. Skimmer started pulling less and less out. I feed fish and corals pretty heavy. It's to the point now that I have trouble keeping nutrients up. Not sure if Sponge Power had anything to do with it but nominally it seems to check out that it did help.
I run about 1/2" of sand. Every time I have to move things around - even my 1/2" of sand - expels stuff like a sewer. No biggy. I stir it out and the skimmer or mechanical filtration gets rid of it. I'm going to move in a few months and I plan on taking the sand out and sticking starboard down there. Everything just seems easier when I have done BB in the past. A lot easier. Main downside is wrasses have no place to bed down (although my cleaner wrasse does his slime bed thing even in BB), Jawfish and Pistol shrimp won't be so happy.
I would rather add phyto/zoo plankton than rely on junk from the sand bed providing nutrients for the coral.
If I can find a way to have some fine grain sand in a HOB refugium I think that will be beneficial. Sand looks fantastic but we're trying to replicate a rather large ecosystem in a confined space and I think sand ends up making life more difficult in the long run. Tack onto that the flexibility you get from no sand with flow for SPS and I think it's a no brainer. But I do love the look of sand. Who doesn't.
At the end of the day its your hobby/party so if you like the look of sand by all means go for it. 20 years ago my buddy did BB and his SPS were healthy and grew faster than I have seem in most tanks today. Funny how things come in and go out of style.