[Todd L]

Hello all!

I built myself a small HOB refugium a little while back. I put in about 4" or so of the Fiji Mud, but after a few weeks it looked like it was getting very gunky and almost swamp-like in it's look. Kind of a de-composing stagnant swamp look?
I took the mud out and replaced it with some live sand, again about 4" worth. My skimmer is feeding the fuge and is pushing I would estimate about 120gph so I don't think lack of flow is an issue? I've heard both yes and no in doing any reading....however my nitrate levels have dropped, so something is working. I made the fuge so as to reduce nitrate levels, and while they're not at the 0 level, they are certainly lower than before.

My questions are this:
Am I better off with the sand bed? and if so do I need to place any critters in there to help keep the walls and substrate clean? I've heard worms and snails work well....

also....getting back to the mud.....was that murky-bottom look normal? am I better off with a mud substrate? I mean I expect some level of a muddy-looking bottom seeing as it is MUD after all....but it just looked like some of the algae was actually decomposing which I am sure is not all too healthy a situation....hence my initial panic.

Any thougths or advice is surely appreciated!

Todd