My nasty sandbed

[Saadatski]

I raked my sandbed today for a tiny algae problem, and i discovered a sudden amount of detritus throughout the sand that is way too high. tiny bits of poop on my very white sand with my crappy lights makes my tank look really bad. The lighting issue i will fix soon, but the sand i do not know how.

help?

[Crooke]

How deep is your sandbed? If it's shallow (~less than 2-3") you should be vacuuming it with water changes.

[Saadatski]

its about 2 and a half inches deep...

[Crooke]

Vacuum, it will help. You could also attempt to increase flow across the sand but this may be more difficult.

[MarineSniper]

Vacuum, it will help. You could also attempt to increase flow across the sand but this may be more difficult.

I'm going with a shallow bed on a 135g I just bought. When you say vacuum it, in what manner? It's the reason I'm going shallow; to keep it clean, but not sure if the siphon will pull it out during water changes...at which time, put it back, I guess

My current tank has 4 year old, 4 inch deep sand in it and I avoid getting that siphon hose anywhere near it like I avoid my ex wife. (Never making That mistake again(neither one)

[Agu]

I redid my nanos with less than 1" sand and use a gravel siphon (http://www.fosterandsmithaquatics.com/1/3/gravel-siphon) during water changes.

[Flippers4pups]

I siphon mine. Helps a lot, but not to deep. 2" sand bed.

[MarineSniper]

Does the siphon take the sand out, and does the gravel vac do anything different? I have an old one that I use for water. Most water changes, I use a BucketMax to sweep while I'm draining and know that it will suck the sand out

Do yo just siphon it out, clean it and put it back?

[ocmikep]

I had a similar problem with my shallow sand bed. I added some Nassarius Snails that help to stir the sand bed and i also vacuum the surface of the sand bed.

Looks a lot better now.

[bamf25]

I siphon my about 2 inch deep sandbed. Using medium grade sand, I lose very little. Fine sand you may lose alot.

[89Foxbody]

How do you vacuum the sand bed without removing it lol? I can't get anywhere near it without sucking out the sand and the grains aren't even close to sugar fine.

[OhYeah]

How do you vacuum the sand bed without removing it lol? I can't get anywhere near it without sucking out the sand and the grains aren't even close to sugar fine.

I have these white leg hermit crabs that all they do is clean the sand bed. Not sure how reef safe they are since my tank is a fowlr. Also if sand is sucking out, you need a valve on the vacuum to adjust the flow so that it's not sucking to fast.

[Saadatski]

yes i have a problem with my sand because it is sugar fine. Vacuming is going to be hard because it will easily get rid of my sandbed within a couple changes.

I might try to add more flow to the tank because i am only getting about 15 turnovers in my tank... i will get two tunze 6045 and put them in my tank to add a good amount of flow so the detritus can be sucked into the sump to my skimmer

[schristi69]

You can control the flow with your thumb over end of the hose. I let it get about half way up the large siphon tube and then stop the flow to let the sand settle. Works like a fluidized sand bed. Gunk comes up....sand goes back down

[Flippers4pups]

You can control the flow with your thumb over end of the hose. I let it get about half way up the large siphon tube and then stop the flow to let the sand settle. Works like a fluidized sand bed. Gunk comes up....sand goes back down

+1. That's exactly how I do it. I lose very little sand this way.

[Darth Chingas]

If you look on youtube for the videos posted by lafishguy, it shows the techinque for vacuuming when he is servicing a tank. Some other cool stuff but very opinionated....

[PCFisher66]

You can also crimp the hose a little to control the flow.

[Saadatski]

so i kinda should vacum my sand every water change? i will try it next time, but i dont feel like buying a new bag of sand every 2 months because i lost it all lol

[Arkayology]

a sea cuc may help you with your sand problems. Look some info up on them.

[schristi69]

If you do it right, you will not lose any. Or take the sand out of your change bucket, wash it off and put it back in.