Sifting the sand while doing water change

[Mikro]

I have a relativly shallow sand bed 2-3 inches . Is it advisable to clean the sand while doing a water change or leave the sand undisturbed?

[dwillingm]

I would not clean the sandbed. You will end up getting rid of alot of beneficial organisms, and possibly release unwanted nutrients into the water column.

If you have areas in your sand bed where debris is collecting, I would try adding more powerheads to keep the detritus in suspension.

[michaeldaly]

I have a shallow sandbed and I usally syphon off the debis that collected on the top of the sandbed during my water change, never noticed any negative consequences yet.

[Hugeness]

I have a 1-2 inch sandbed and I constantly sift it and siphon it during water changes with no ill effects. My rocks are all on lifts as well which makes it easier to access the sandbed.

[Mikro]

Bump

[reefshadow]

I vaccum mine as well, it's a SSB and I only go down about 1 1/2 inches when vaccuming. I do 1/2 of the tank about every other W/C.

Personally I wouldn't just stir it, unless your skimmer is good enough to catch what comes out and you have the flow to keep the detritus in suspension.

[dragonforce]

never touched my 4 inch sand bed in a year and a half....0 nitrates. Good luck!

[Ritten]

I have a shallow sand bed 1-2 " and vacuum every week during a water change.

[tanker]

I have anout 1" of sand and have never cleaned it, but I do have cukes in my tank too.

[jmicky41]

I have an extra shallow bed and occasionally remove a large portion of it. The discarded sand and water is filthy. This despite good water flow with 2 stream pumps and my return pump. One day I may try a cuke to help out, but I'm always worried about them nuking the tank. Can tiger tails do this?

[MikeBrke]

Well, I have a 2-3 inch sandbed ans I stir it up every week with my hand. No ill effects. In fact, I think it is good because it doesn't let anything settle and allows stuff to be filtered out.

[tanker]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=8790380#post8790380 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by jmicky41
One day I may try a cuke to help out, but I'm always worried about them nuking the tank. Can tiger tails do this?

Do what?? Clean sand or nuke tank??

[jmicky41]

Both, but more importantly can they poison all my fish like a distressed sea apple?

[benray4fun]

You know you guys can just go out and buy a sand sifting goby. I have
one and I haven't needed to clean my sand bed ever since. I called garf and they said having one or two would actually help the sand bed, so go figure...

[bigcdc]

I've only had one SW tank so far in my experince (30g w/ 10g sump), but I think I have lot of diversity in my tank; cuke, sand sifting stars.....Had different types of FW, FW/FO, FW/FO w/Plants... ). Currently I am battleing nitrates, but my tank is only 5 months old mixed reef. I've been receintly (last water change) stiring my 3 1/2" sand bend to about 1" to 1.5" down to help remove excess ...crap.... and using wallyworld batting (in the hobby section, just as good as any pre-filter media out there and way cheaper) to collect the ... what ever the floats into the water column. I'm hoping in a week or 2 that the nitrates drop from the 10-25 range to much lower. Well see, the learning curve sucks but is a nesasity IMO.... and drinking late at night doesn't help.... :)

But I think stiring the top anirobic layer (spelling.... yes I'm not good at it...) should help remove the crap before it can break down into the ever so famous nitrogen cycle

~Chris