Refugium Sand

[puntific]

I used to have my refugium above my tank and I had sand and macro growing in there and the pods trickled down. It seemed to work but then there were problems with getting the water up there and also having it get blocked up and leak from up there. Not good.

 

So when I moved my sump into the basement, my fuge went down there too. Today I had to rearange everything in the basement as I didn't plan the first go well. In moving everything today I really disturbed the sand and saw just how nasty it was.

 

The question is, should I change the sand or keep it. Is it the source of my phosphate problem? If I get rid of the sand, should I get new sand or not? If I get new sand, just what kind of critters should I put in there to keep the sand turning?

 

Thanks a bunch,

 

puntific

[nwcoralfarm]

The sand is fine to keep, although it may be a source for your phosphates. Try stirring it up real good and siphoning out the dirty water and adding new, do this a few times and you should be good to go.

[gradth]

Throw some nassaruis in there. They do a good job. Some people will say no, but a sand sifting star fish will really clean it up also.

[RLaForce]

I'm happy with the job my nassaruis do for me. I haven't vacuumed any of my sand since I got them about 1 1/2 ago. I think they are better than the sand sifting stars and don't both as much of your corals on the sand bed. IMO Plus I don't have any problems with my phosphates.