Quote Originally Posted by xtmreef View Post
Sorry I didn't clarify... I was referring to the DSB-in-a-bucket being ineffective.

Yes, I agree that the remote sump with DSB is effective (large area)

sorry for the mixup
Just watch that your DSB isn't going to get pH fluctuations ... a sump is usually a great place to dose kalkwasser and other calcium and alkalinity additives (large volume of water, no livestock, typically slow flow back into the display tank). Frequent localized pH fluctuations, especially pH spikes from kalkwasser dosing, can cause aragonite sand to start fusing and cementing together, turning your deep sandbed into a brittle and useless slab of carbonate-based concrete. When you hear opponents of DSB methodolgies complain about a DSB that "solidified from accumulated nutrients", it actually solidified from the pH of the water above the substrate going from 8.0 to 8.6 and back to 8.2 in a span of 30 minutes, every night, for months on end. The excessive "trapped" nutrients they think they can see accumulating in the sandbed through the side of the glass is just the normal nutrient load that a DSB can process, but it can no longer escape or move.