Fuge sand depth ???

[Heidi]

So I am reading a lot about fuges and it seems that they have a pretty deep sand bed most of the time. What is the point of that? Can I have a shallow sand bend and still get the filtration (biological) that I need from my fuge? Right now the fuge has about 10 pounds of cured live rock from my hex and about an inch of sand also from the hex. I have a quickly growing ball of cheato, and the rocks I picked were the macro covered ones. SO do I need more sand?
Thanks CR , have a told you lately that you rock!?
Heidi

[bigbill]

i have a 2 inch mud bed and have heard u dont want much more then that

[jolson10450]

deep sand beds create extra nitrate exportation but if the sand bed is too deep it will not work and if it is too shallow it will not work, personally i use about 1" of sand only in the bottom and just load the whole sump up with liverock and rock rubble. the chaeto grows like crazy for me. i put the rock rubble in chamber 1 which is where the skimmer and heater is and in chamber 2 where the refugium is, in chamber 3 where my return is i dont put anything because i dont want it to get sucked up and break the pump or slow the pump down.