DSB is a myth. I just rescued a 125g reef from a guy that had a "DSB" and hasnt cleaned his gravel in 7 years. Hair algae everywhere...the sand was brown...it was a huge mess. Only the soft corals were alive and the fish were looking rough, no doubt due to the massive amounts of un-disturbed detritus that had accumulated and compacted in his "DSB". I just think thats plain silly. Its not how it works in nature, and its not how it works in reef aquaria.Heathd;4256197; said:The benifits of a DSB require low agitation/flow. Rubble rock in a canister is fine, but I dont think the sand is going to do much, other then get kicked around and wear out the internals.
That being said, there are huge advantages to having a sand bed, it is a good place for bacteria, and other small beneficial critters.
If you wanted to do a FO or a FOWLR, I would suggest massive filtration, including a sump, large protein skimmer, and a lot of biological filtration in the system. Spray paint the bottom of your tank black. I would also suggest that you keep LR in your tank because that will aid in your nitrification process. The FX5 does a better job picking up particulate, but the new eheims do a better job with biological filtration, even though they are smaller. There is a thread on here somewhere about the comparison.
I say with big enough filtration, and frequent water changes, there is no reason why this shouldnt work.