Thoughts on disturbing the sand bed?

[lakwriter]

I have ~3.5" of live sand in my tank. I have heard some people say not to disturb or disrupt the sand bed for fear of releasing nitrates and others who say stirring up the sand is part of their normal routine. What are the pros and cons of either practice?

I have nassarius and cerith snails who bury themselves and would be disrupting the sand to a certain extent.

[Machiavelli]

I've read in articles by Borneman and by the folks at wetwebmedia that you should not seek to disturb the sandbed as it tends to upset whatever biological "equilibrium" your sandbed is working towards.

Likewise, I dont recall seeing any good studies which either confirm or deny that sandbeds will become a nitrate sink which can release the nitrates en mass when disturbed

[lakwriter]

I guess its like anything else...you do it a little through the actions of your sand-dwellers, but you should not go out of your way to disturb all the sand all the time.

[virginiadiver69]

I believe it is hydrogen sulfide that is the culprit. As long as you keep the disturbance to the top 1/2" or so you should be okay.

[Mojo Jojo]

Dont even mess with it. Last time I mixed things up i caused an ammonia spike.

[rrcjr1972]

Just let the clean-up crew do its work. I wouldn't disturb unless its really necessary

[kathainbowen]

Aside from the reasons of disturbing the "balance" of the sandbed or releasing an undue burst of hydrogen sulfide, you could disturb good organisms in the sandbed that generally come in as hitchhikers. Cluster dusters, spaghetti worms, etc. There can be oodles of beneficial organisms in your sand bed that would just hate to be disturbed, outside of your nassarius snails.

[D-Rod]

Ditto^^^

[Angel*Fish]

Agree also -- it's no big deal to disturb it when needed - but it would be a mistake to disturb your critters on a regular basis

What you want to be sure and do is add to the infauna on a regular basis - say every 4-6 months or so get some good creature rich sand from another reefer who cultivates these tiny inverts or online :)

[Rhodesholar]

I have told this story many times. In my experience do not disturb the bed deeper then 1/2 inch EVER!

Every time a disturbance deeper then 1/2 inch occurs, I have a cyano outbreak that defies description. Anywhere that sand lands, cyano outbreak. If my bed remains undisturbed, no cyano everand no nitrates, phosphates, etc.

This has happend to me on three occasions of having power heads come loose, or change aim and dig holes in my sand bed, so this is more then just speculation.

After this last time I am taking the DSB out of my display and going BB which I must admit is against my usual defense for DSBs. I will however keep my DSB in my sump/fuge.

[dailydriven911]

If you want to disturb your sand bed just put a maroon clown in there...:)

[kathainbowen]

.... or a yellow coris wrasse.

[swimboy123]

or a vlamingi tang. Mine loves to play in the sand.

[Rhodesholar]

Or a modded MJ 1200. :D

Back OT you guys with digging fish, how deep are your SBs and do you have any problems after a work out by your fish?

[scumonkey]

I have a 3.5 inch sand bed with 2 wrasse that sleep in it every night.
Other than the big dust storm it creates when they dive,I've never had any spikes or problems!(knock on wood)

[Rhodesholar]

How deep do they dig in?

[scumonkey]

How deep do they dig in?

I've seen them from underneath on the bottom glass! :eek1: