OK, first a warning: according to Reefand's owner a lot of people have gotten quite heated and some even banned for arguing the pros and cons of DSBs. Please, please: can we act like grown ups and use some science where possible.

Just saying "I used a DSB and my effin' system crashed" won't do in this thread since I'm trying to enourage proper debate from experts and people who do have working DSBs.

Miracle Mud is a commercial variation on the DSB using, well, essentially mud plus some trace ingredients! They added some Caulerpa to the sump on a 24/7 photoperiod to stop it exploding: and it's claimed that system cures (!) hole in head/LLE syndrome and operates without a skimmer.

So we have DSB+skimmer, skimmerless DSB and even sump DMB with caulerpa to start with. Here's a starting article or two from Dr Ron:

http://www.reefkeeping.com/issues/20...ture/index.php
http://dtplankton.com/phytoplankton/.../sandbeds.html