Hi adoptabobby! Welcome to TR!
Would the
refugium be out of sight? If so i would make it a cheap as possible and not spend the cash on the
wet/dry thing. From what i have been told many many times, you dont want to use the bioballs in the wet dry as it will cause a huge buildup in
nitrates. In the
Fuge (or display) go with the deep sand bed (DSB) of four inches or deeper. The sand toward the bottom will go anarobic and suck
nitrates out of the water (turning them into nitrogen gas). A
DSB can cause a buildup of hydrogen sulfide in the sand, a toxic horrible-smelling gas, but this is easily and safely removed by slightly stirring part of the sandbed every month or so.
Am i answering you question? Or i am i just rambling on? Wouldn't be the first time
As a final note, a friend of mine (colaebola on the forums, if he ever posts) uses a 30 gallon tank as his
fuge and it works great. For lighting he is using the old single tube HO flourscent that came with the tank. He added a second smaller hex tank inside and uses it to hold his
DSB. The rest of the 30 gallon is filled with
macroalgae (cheatomorpha and calipura). His water quality is perfect (just checked it yesterday actually):
ammonia,
nitrite,
nitrate = 0. There isn't a single hole drilled in any of his set up; he just lets the water overflow the hex into the 30.
__________________
Samuel
"If they but knew it, almost all men in their degree, some time or other, cherish very nearly the same feelings towards the ocean with me.... There is magic in it. Let the most absent-minded men be plunged in his deepest reveries--stand that man on his legs, set his feet a-going, and he will infallibly lead you to water, if water there be in all that region."
Herman Melville,
Moby Dick, Ch. 1.
http://religiousspiritualism.wordpress.com 
