Do you clean your sandbed?
- Thread starter Jason1982
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This is where things get tricky 'cause people start swearing.. about their techniques...
some swear on deep undisturbed sand beds, supposedly ya don't wanna disturb the anaerobic bacteria and stir up organics trapped in there....
some believe in siphoning just the top layer of the sand bed... some on siphoning and cleaning the entire layer of the sand bed...
I do bare bottom tank w/ a deep sand bed in the refugium and NEVER touch it.... but that fish store I met up w/ you at (FC) always deep siphons their sand bed regularly.... both works in its own ways....
get a diamond goby, it'll eat up all that sand surface stuff and churn the sand up before any algae will establish itself
some swear on deep undisturbed sand beds, supposedly ya don't wanna disturb the anaerobic bacteria and stir up organics trapped in there....
some believe in siphoning just the top layer of the sand bed... some on siphoning and cleaning the entire layer of the sand bed...
I do bare bottom tank w/ a deep sand bed in the refugium and NEVER touch it.... but that fish store I met up w/ you at (FC) always deep siphons their sand bed regularly.... both works in its own ways....
get a diamond goby, it'll eat up all that sand surface stuff and churn the sand up before any algae will establish itself
I have a diamond goby and the only mess it makes is some sand on the the corals on the sandbed. If you don't have a bunch of corals on the sand, then I highly recommend it for white, clean, aerated sand. It also depends on the type of sand. I used to have sugar and I got a mess all the time. But then I switched to a larger grain size, Caribsea Special grade, and no more messes because the sand is heavier and does not make it to the water column.
About once a day, I get a minor little "dust" storm of the goby sifting like crazy. At first it bugged the heck out of me, but then I realized it was just getting the detritus up into the water column so it can be removed by the overflow. It never lasts more than a few minutes.
About once a day, I get a minor little "dust" storm of the goby sifting like crazy. At first it bugged the heck out of me, but then I realized it was just getting the detritus up into the water column so it can be removed by the overflow. It never lasts more than a few minutes.
Only in the past when I had a Dino outbreak in my 90 gallon. My fish are scavengers an underfed so I really don't see any room for food being wasted. Poop gets cycled into the overflow via 3 6105's all in random an in different angles.
I had to cut a 6125 out of my tank. I had too much flow. How do I know? Stupid sand is all over the place.
Oh and my wrasse all dives and lifts up crap.
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I had to cut a 6125 out of my tank. I had too much flow. How do I know? Stupid sand is all over the place.
Oh and my wrasse all dives and lifts up crap.
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Lol, this always causes a debate.
I vacuum my sand every week, during water change. I also blow the parts I cant reach, with my baster. I figure if you vacuum from day 1, and keep up on it, it's fine. If you've never vacuumed before, either leave it be, or vacuum little by little, each water change. Personally, I hate the look of green and purple sludge along the glass, in the sandbed.
I vacuum my sand every week, during water change. I also blow the parts I cant reach, with my baster. I figure if you vacuum from day 1, and keep up on it, it's fine. If you've never vacuumed before, either leave it be, or vacuum little by little, each water change. Personally, I hate the look of green and purple sludge along the glass, in the sandbed.
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Everytime I stir my sand bed (5") I ALWAYS get a stupid nitrate spike. In fact I had my turbelles pisitioned wrong and the opposing currents started to erode my sand bed at the middle of the tank. Now I am again fighting a stupid nitrate spike of 100+. If you DSB dont disturb it. Infact if I could do it all again I would have gone bare bottom just for the heck of it and have a DSB in the sump instead. Just my .02 cents from experience.
.... Those things are like vacuums if you got a small army of them...
I wish I could go bare bottom tank but tank looks a lot better with sand. I dont know how you guys can go without vacuuming your sand. I vacuum once a month and theres tons of crud that siphons out. Maybe I have too many fish.
Deep sand beds sounds good but I hear more horror stories for DSB during power outages or when the sand gets disturbed ie tank moving, major cleaning
Deep sand beds sounds good but I hear more horror stories for DSB during power outages or when the sand gets disturbed ie tank moving, major cleaning
