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Rev, I split this out so that it could get better attention.
I haven't used mud in any of my systems. We had gotten some as a donation at one point and gave it away in raffles, but I'm not sure if it was ever used.
It would be great to hear from people with reef mud experience.
BAd experience here....
I had my first sump mudded up and it crashed bad and I cared for my bed as close to the T as possable.
My sumps now consists of:
50% Agri-alive
25% Agrigate
25% Live mix from the main system,
never a problem with any crashing or system spikes,In my new sump (72x12x15)
I bought 100 of those really cheap snails on ebay (like $15.00 shipped) the keep it mix well and free from algae.
HTH
Yes the mud has life in it but it pack down super tight,you get the snails in there working about and you see lots of bubbles coming from the mud.
These bubbles are basicly toxic from what I experinced,the more the crabs dug around the worse my water quality became I guess they were releasing toxins from the mud that were being broken down by the bactreia in the mud.
First my ammonia spiked off the chart then nitrates hit the moon,tried water changes and mass amounts of carbon but I lost the battle,I asked LFS's and GARF and was told this sometimes happens with the mud.I lost a fully stocked 135 reef.
I cured from it being in my systems for ever.
I've used the mud in my fuge for a while. The main "pro" for the mud is that it is packed with nutrients. If you are doing planted then I'd consider it but if you are just planning on using an algae like cheato then you don't need sand or mud as it's free floating.
Unless you are building a "display fuge" then I'd say cheato is probably the best bet for 95%+ of the people on this board. It's super easy to grow and requires hardly any maint except to thin it out when it gets to bushy. It doesn't get much easier then that.
I've made the mud in my sump. Its ok I guess I have not seen any real difference with it or with out other than my wallet. Who ever thought mud was this expensive. And my mother told me to stop playing in the mud. And look at me now 38 yrs old and I still make mud pies.
Hey Rev,
I use mud with 2 of my tanks, one has it in a hang on fuge and the other has it in the sump. Haven't had any troubles with it, I only have about 3" in both so I'm not sure if you go deeper it will cause problems or not but cost is a factor, mud is a lot more expensive than sand and that's why I used sand in the other tanks. mud 5 lbs = $20-$35 depending on the brand (I use both)..&... 20 lbs live sand =$20 ... Hope that helps
Any info is helpful, thanks Tom. I was just wondering what the difference was bring sand and mud, tank wise, really. I'll stick with what I know works, SAND. I'm just setting things up or my fuge. Question: Who uses mangrove plants in their tanks?