Sandbed management

[Mike de Leon]

Hey guys with successful sand beds, What made you succeed in keeping/maintaining your tank with sand?

How did you start?
What kind did you use etc.

Please share your experiences, a couple of bragging pics goes a long way!

Thanks

[RobZilla04]

Probably the most popular choice for sand bed is Caribsea Special Grade. My trick is I siphon vacuum half with each water change. I don't have fish or inverts that turn the substrate over for me so I do it manually. This helps remove trapped nutrients and keep it looking fresh and clean.

Sorry no pix at the moment.

[Slats]

Tagging along - Starting my new tank here soon and want to plan for better sand bed management. My current cube just seems to get coated in brown algae over and over again.

[GimpyFin]

I like the Caribsea bahamas oolite very fine sand. (I like the look of fine sugar sand.) My current tank has been up for almost a year with it and I really don't do much to the sandbed except let the various cleaners do their thing. I also use a gyre powerhead and it helps with dead spots and keeps a lot of stuff from settling on the sandbed. A fairly current pic from about a month ago.

http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/picture.php?albumid=10859&pictureid=76652

[Ron Reefman]

I took fine sand and put it in a 7 gallon bucket and then stick a garden hose in it with the water at full pressure. Once the water starts to flow over the top of the bucket, start moving the hose in and out all over the bucket. Very fine sand will get stirred up and flow out with the water. Sand left behind is clean and a bit heavier so my wave makes and gyre don't blow it around too much and when disturbed, it settles down pretty quickly.

[whiteshark]

I took fine sand and put it in a 7 gallon bucket and then stick a garden hose in it with the water at full pressure. Once the water starts to flow over the top of the bucket, start moving the hose in and out all over the bucket. Very fine sand will get stirred up and flow out with the water. Sand left behind is clean and a bit heavier so my wave makes and gyre don't blow it around too much and when disturbed, it settles down pretty quickly.

I assume, then, that you fully dry the sand after rinsing?

I've always wondered if anything might get left behind after using tap water to rinse something even if you dry it. Specifically drying via evaporation. I imagine there must be some undesirable chemical that could get left behind. Doubly especially when talking about sand that has tons of surface area. Any thoughts about that?

[Mike de Leon]

Probably the most popular choice for sand bed is Caribsea Special Grade. My trick is I siphon vacuum half with each water change. I don't have fish or inverts that turn the substrate over for me so I do it manually. This helps remove trapped nutrients and keep it looking fresh and clean.

Sorry no pix at the moment.

Thank you. How often do you do maintenance? How's the condition just before you clean?


Tagging along - Starting my new tank here soon and want to plan for better sand bed management. My current cube just seems to get coated in brown algae over and over again.

Yeah, i started with sand and now it's almost gone.

I like the Caribsea bahamas oolite very fine sand. (I like the look of fine sugar sand.) My current tank has been up for almost a year with it and I really don't do much to the sandbed except let the various cleaners do their thing. I also use a gyre powerhead and it helps with dead spots and keeps a lot of stuff from settling on the sandbed. A fairly current pic from about a month ago.

That looks good. I have an MP40QD and a RW15. It will blow this sand all over.

http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/picture.php?albumid=10859&pictureid=76652

I took fine sand and put it in a 7 gallon bucket and then stick a garden hose in it with the water at full pressure. Once the water starts to flow over the top of the bucket, start moving the hose in and out all over the bucket. Very fine sand will get stirred up and flow out with the water. Sand left behind is clean and a bit heavier so my wave makes and gyre don't blow it around too much and when disturbed, it settles down pretty quickly.

So how's your sandbed in the tank now? I always wondered how to prep the sand itself out of the bag. Do you ever wonder if the sand absorb impurities from the tap water then leaches them out into your tank?

I am guessing too, overall the sand will be healthy depending on how stable tank parameters are. Obviously the higher phosphates and nitrates are the more gunk one will have on the sand bed.

My tank will be close to nine months now, so somewhat mature. How will new sand affect the tank?
Can i dump like a little at a time so it does not throw the tank out of whack?

Thanks

[ca1ore]

I use the special grade reef floor stuff. Always washed it with regular tap water. Doubtful that the small amount of remaining tap water will affect anything. I'm in the leave the sandbed alone camp. Only about 3", mostly for my burrowing wrasses and a preferred aesthetic. Very high flow in the tank or events any noticeable detritus buildup.

[Joe0813]

following.... my sandbed always looks like crap

[DrewCam]

I keep about a 2" deep sandbed with CaribSea Fiji Pink. I really like the grain size a lot, somewhere between special reef grade and oolite. I gravel wash it quickly everytime I do a water change (10 gallons once a week on an 80 gallon tank). Seems to stay clean and looks great.

[jda]

I like a 3-4" sandbed myself. Cucumber and a few conchs help to keep it nice and stirred but not disturbed. After about four years, I start to change it at a rate of 25% per year. Aragonite will bind phosphate and replacing it is a good idea IMO. It can also get quite bogged down with muck in the deeper places.

[Mike de Leon]

So how do you introduce sand in an established system? What is considered to be SSB that would be enough for burrowing fish like wrasses?

[BlackTip]

I have Caribsea Special Grade. Nice looking sand and doesn't float around. My sand are very hard in areas specially under the return pipes, and the surface in other areas tend to stick together. I vacuum the sandbed every two weeks. Because I can't reach the areas in the back, the sand is hard like rock. I have feeling that when I stop vacuuming, the entire sand bed will harden as well.

I think it has something to do with the sand, although I don't have any facts or proof. All my parameters are within med range, and I use CaRx.

[AlSimmons]

I forget what kind of sand I have exactly, but once a month I'll take a small power head and stir the entire thing up right before a water change. It's amazing what can accumulate UNDER the rocks sometimes. Anyways, it's a standard 20 gallon tank and the sand bed is only about an inch deep. I've been doing this since the tank was set up back in March of 2009 and everything is doing really well.


http://i1244.photobucket.com/albums/gg563/rollnthndr1/maze_zpsopdzcavj.jpg (http://s1244.photobucket.com/user/rollnthndr1/media/maze_zpsopdzcavj.jpg.html)

[RobZilla04]

Right now I've got a moderate coating of brown algae after about a week. Still working out my lighting schedule and adjusting to the Viparspectra LED's. I'm trying to back water changes down to every other week or more so I'll have to update once I get everything sorted out.

[Ron Reefman]

I assume, then, that you fully dry the sand after rinsing?

I've always wondered if anything might get left behind after using tap water to rinse something even if you dry it. Specifically drying via evaporation. I imagine there must be some undesirable chemical that could get left behind. Doubly especially when talking about sand that has tons of surface area. Any thoughts about that?


I happen to use irrigation water here in Florida and it is reclaimed water. The city cleans it, but it's not for drinking. It also has very little if any chlorine in it. And even if it did, chlorine evaporates from water over a day or two. But it is high in nitrates and phosphates. I take the bucket of 'clean' sand and slowly tip it on it's side and let water trickle out until it stops. My guess is that there is VERY little water left in the sand and it's going into a system with over 200g of new saltwater. Even if the sand did have something in the leftover water, the dilution factor has to be like 1000:1. I figure I pollute the tank more every time I feed it!



So how's your sandbed in the tank now? I always wondered how to prep the sand itself out of the bag. Do you ever wonder if the sand absorb impurities from the tap water then leaches them out into your tank?

I am guessing too, overall the sand will be healthy depending on how stable tank parameters are. Obviously the higher phosphates and nitrates are the more gunk one will have on the sand bed.

My tank will be close to nine months now, so somewhat mature. How will new sand affect the tank?
Can i dump like a little at a time so it does not throw the tank out of whack?

Thanks

My sandbed has never been a problem for me. And just to add a bit more, I raise 90% or more of my live rock off the sand. I make 'platforms' with egg crate and pvc pipe for legs that hold the egg crate about 1" to 2" above the sand. I add some rubble around the edges to hide the egg crate. That way 90% of the entire footprint of my tank has sand available for the critters that want it. It also allows for water flow under the LR so more space for bacteria and sponges. I also seem to get a lot of things that are willing to grow out of the sand under the rock like small feather dusters and spaghetti worms. You can see the process in my build thread (link in my signature).

I never even considered whether sand would adsorb chemicals from the water. The sand is only in 'tap' or 'reclaimed' water for an hour or so as it drains, and then the bucket is filled with RO/DI water until it just tops the bucket. And the dilution factor going into a 200g saltwater system is huge anyway.

The sand I used for my new 125g reef (200g system) was from my old 180g reef and DSB. Yes, I washed the 6 year old DSB sand and it came out just as clean as the tank sand after about 3 to 5 minutes of 'flushing' with a garden hose. It smelled a bit worse at first, but only for 30 seconds or so.

I wouldn't expect adding new sand to an existing system would cause much if any water parameter changes. I'd be more concerned with silt and cloudy water causing issues with fish and coral than water parameter issues. Find a way to add it slowly, maybe through a big PVC pipe that keeps the flow of sand to the bottom of the tank before it 'spills out' into the water column?