<< I tried the freshwater sandbed but the results were less than what I had
hoped. I would suggest a refugium type mud filter. They seem to work a lot
better. I also built a filter system using water circulated through a tank
containing water lettuce. This also worked but required a lot of light
wattage. It was a great place to grow out fry. Daphnia loved it as well.
Smaller grained sand in a tank is a plus! I have use DYI and fizzie systems
for delivering CO2 both work about the same. >>
I like a layer of builders sand about 4 to 6" deep with a layer of detritus
(mulm, mud) over the sand. This along with a refugium filled with floating
plants like water lettuce. Water hyacinths, or some other fast growing floating
plant with lots of thick trailing roots. I also like lots of emergent plants
like dwarf cattails, dwarf umbrella palms, and trees like bald cypress,
mangroves, and water tupelo kept trimmed back into small trees with large trunks and
root mats. the only thing I would like to try is slow injection of clean water
under the sand slowly diffusing up through the sand into the aquarium. So far
I haven't been able to do this effectively. I have injected water into deep
sand bed at a high pressure and a very large flow rate. the effect is amazing
not only with water quality but the visual effect of boiling sand is great.
Since I can't have mulm and boiling sand I keep the mulm.
Moon
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