Clean or leave your sand ?

[Bygkid]

I have had people tell me that I sould leave my sandbed alone and let my 'cleanup' crew handle the waste. Recently I have seen some articles telling me to do the complete opposite.

What do you think and how do you handle your sand bed?

[ludnix]

I personally just clean my sand when I notice it's not looking very clean. Lately my hermit crabs have just realized the sand exists so they've decided to clean it, forcing me to do it much less often.

I use a wooden dowel to stir up the surface and rake it to where it's supposed to be.

[reefD]

Originally posted by Bygkid
I have had people tell me that I sould leave my sandbed alone and let my 'cleanup' crew handle the waste. Recently I have seen some articles telling me to do the complete opposite.

What do you think and how do you handle your sand bed?

if u take old school philosophy u let the sand be. esspecially if 'trates are zero...but new school says sand bed is better kepted clean for long term life .even better no sand bed using board that appears like sand or bare bottom keeps tank bottom from ever(i mean 10 years later) being a source of 'trates

[sir_dudeguy]

Personally i say let it be and get a proper cleanup crew and sand sifters. My personal fav. sand sifter is the diamond goby. Cleaned my 55 out in about 4 days and i had a bad brown slime problem covering just about all the sand.

Lately my hermit crabs have just realized the sand exists so they've decided to clean it, forcing me to do it much less often.

For one, hermits dont do nothin really. Every now and then they'll decide to pick at some algae, but for the most part, they just scavenge lose food.

You're better off getting a lot of snails and no hermits (hermits will kill the snails, which actually DO clean). I like having lots of ceriths and astreas, and nassarius are good to get crap out of the sandbed, although they dont eat algae...they like meatier stuff.

[Bygkid]

I have tried to keep lots of snails and hermits. I also try to keep a variety of them, nassarius, cerith, turbos, conch, astrea snails. I have a sleeper goby, sand sifting seastar, scarlet and blue-legged hermits as I know that they all feed on different parts of the reef and sand. I try to keep plenty of differnet shells to keep the snailocide to a minimum.
I do water changes at about 15-20 % every week or two. I still manage to have had a few Cyano outbreaks the past few months and that is why I posted this survey as well as the afformentioned reason.
I am trying create as many natural levels as a 60"x 29"x 18" world will allow.

[jimwat]

With your crew, I can not imagine your sand being very "dirty". I think that the cyano outbreaks are a seperate issue.

[VaderWS6]

I siphon out all the detritus out of the left side the first part of the year, and then the right side the mid part of the year. Works perfectly, and doesn't seem to bother the fauna that much. Sometimes I'll let everything I've siphoned settle in buckets, and siphon off any fauna that I see. Super clean sand, no algae problems, 0 nitrates.

[jeffhand]

sand star cleans mine.

[jeffhand]

Sand star does a good job

[sir_dudeguy]

I still manage to have had a few Cyano outbreaks the past few months and that is why I posted this survey as well as the afformentioned reason.

As far as i know, none of those animals you listed really EAT the cyano...the diamond gobies sift the sand so much that it cant really grow...but as far as actually eating it, i dont believe they do.

Like someone else said, i think that the cyano is a separate issue...

On a side note...have you changed your salts to a different brand?? Do you keep using the same salt or do you like switch around a bit?

[Bygkid]

Originally posted by sir_dudeguy

Like someone else said, i think that the cyano is a separate issue...

On a side note...have you changed your salts to a different brand?? Do you keep using the same salt or do you like switch around a bit?

I have tried to narrow down the cyano problem. I have tried cutting back on my feeding to just 1 cube frozen mysis and 3-4 3 inch strips algae a day for 14 fish. I run the light in my fug 24/7.

As for salt, I buy all my salt at my LFS until I can get myself an RO/DI setup. AS far as I know, they have always used the same salt. I try to keep my salinity(refrac) at 1.025-1.026.
My nitrates and nitrites are both practically nil. I use a carbon bag for a few days every month.
That is why I was wondering if my problem resides in my sandbed. Of course, I am also wondering about how to sift sand. Would I just use the same kind of gravel cleaner like I use for my fresh tank? It seems that I would just pull sand and everything else. I have pulled up large pieces of cyano with the tube I use when I do water changes.

There is so much going on in the tank and so much to learn, that it is a bit overwhelming at times. It gets me a bit stressed and I take things a bit personally when things seem to go awry but I am hooked(bad pun) on this hobby.

I have really appreciated all the feedback and thank you all for your input. I have been told that since October will be officially 1 year, I have been lucky so far, for a newb. I am also trying my luck with SPS. If I wasn't already a glutton for punishment, I raised the bar in mid jump.

[jimwat]

I wouldn't add anything new until you solve cyano problem. How old are your light bulbs?

[Bygkid]

I have been using the standard Current USA 14000k 150w bulbs that came with the Sunpod since the tank was setup last October(almost a year). I ordered 3 new bulbs from the LFS and hope to have them in by early next week. I have read on here that I will not see the change in the bulb intensity needed so I decided to just replace them and chunk the old ones, even though they seem fine.

[RichConley]

If your sand looks bad, you need more flow and a bigger skimmer. Cleaning it isnt really going to help.

[VaderWS6]

My sand stays free of algae even when I don't siphon it, but I still siphon just so I don't run into any problems. For years I just let it sit, I've got a ton of flow in my reef though. I keep 5" of sand in the bottom, and eventually after about 10 years it really became loaded with detritus but no algae problems. I decided to start siphoning a couple times a year just to keep things in check. Slime algae is the last algae I want in my reef, and dinos...

[jimwat]

Originally posted by Bygkid
I have been using the standard Current USA 14000k 150w bulbs that came with the Sunpod since the tank was setup last October(almost a year). I ordered 3 new bulbs from the LFS and hope to have them in by early next week. I have read on here that I will not see the change in the bulb intensity needed so I decided to just replace them and chunk the old ones, even though they seem fine.

Your tank will notice that your lights are getting old long before your eyes do.

[Bygkid]

I keep getting the 'flow' as asolution to the Cyano. How can I find out my turnover with 2 Mag12 pumps and 2 Tunze 6040's? Since my tank is tall and only 18 inch deep, I may have to look at my aquascaping to maximize my flow.

[mm949]

first sign of old bulbs is algae on the sand bed.....check to see if its not bad when lights 1st come and at the end of the cycle to see if its worse.....

[law086]

Originally posted by RichConley
If your sand looks bad, you need more flow and a bigger skimmer. Cleaning it isnt really going to help.

I'm not sure I understand this. While more flow and larger skimmers can only help water quality, how is it that physically cleaning the sand wouldn't help clean it? Isn't that kind of like saying heating water wouldn't heat it? Cleaning sand would by definition make it cleaner, unless you're not really cleaning it.

[RichConley]

Originally posted by law086
I'm not sure I understand this. While more flow and larger skimmers can only help water quality, how is it that physically cleaning the sand wouldn't help clean it? Isn't that kind of like saying heating water wouldn't heat it? Cleaning sand would by definition make it cleaner, unless you're not really cleaning it.

No, what I'm saying is that the dirty sand is a side effect. Cleaning it is ignoring the problem: food is settling

first sign of old bulbs is algae on the sand bed.....check to see if its not bad when lights 1st come and at the end of the cycle to see if its worse.....

I dunno. I ran a 250w AB10K De for almost 3 years, and had no algae problems.

I think old bulbs corrolate with algae because people who aren't changing their bulbs on their normal schedule also aren't doing their normal maintenance.

[Bygkid]

Originally posted by RichConley
No, what I'm saying is that the dirty sand is a side effect. Cleaning it is ignoring the problem: food is settling

I dunno. I ran a 250w AB10K De for almost 3 years, and had no algae problems.

So far it seems that I may doing things ok, just not being patient enough for the 180 gallons to cycle. I have cut back on the feeding. I also cut phyto back to small amount once a week since I have a high fish load and especially since I lost my clam.

I am just trying to get input for anything else that I may be overlooking or need to be doing. I do regular water changes of at least 15% if not 20% every week. Sometimes every 2 weeks depending on my schedule.

[Bygkid]

bump