siphoning sandbed

[area]

I read in this months tank of the month tha t Marc Froese siphons his sandbed once a month. what posative benafits does this have? and is there any danger in moving the sand?because I had my supplier tell me that certain gases may be released.

[rhino509]

this is one of those back and forth subjects.some do some dont.i personally dont siphon.seems to me once the sand gets nice and established,the snd just stays clean......well with the help of good flow.

[Davidb6]

I clean my sand bed on a routine basis. I've also heard good and bad info on this subject so I wouldn't recommend you do it until your research a little more.

I disturb and siphon the very top layer of my sand in one small area (about a 4"x4" section) of the tank every couple of weeks.

I assume this happen in nature with wildlife and with storms. Doing this only in one small section at a time shouldn't have an impact on the whole system and my sand looks more natural.

[Bygkid]

I origially went with the "leave it alone" idea because the more levels of nature in effect, the better. Of course, after a bad battle with cyano, I started siphoning the sand. OF course, as Davidb6 pointed out, nature does have the ability to siphon or stir the sand on a regular basis. Since my flow is pretty good, I mainly stir a little of the sand from time to time and use a turkey baster to blow the rocks off as well at least once a week and let the refugium and filter feeders absorb the detrius.
This is just my opinion and it has worked pretty good for now.

Scott

[SaltyBoG Water]

Originally posted by area
I read in this months tank of the month tha t Marc Froese siphons his sandbed once a month. what posative benafits does this have? and is there any danger in moving the sand?because I had my supplier tell me that certain gases may be released.

I used to syphon my sand bed in the early stages of my tank b/c i had a cyano bacteria problem. But now i have a skimmer which really helps. Now instead of syphoning i substitute a good flow ( as Mentioned ) I "baste" the sand with a mini turkey baster thing and get all the sand i little riled up. and my filters just eat it up... That way i'm not losing all of the MicroFauna that is helping in the "natural" water cleaning cycle. or disturbing any noxious gases that could be trapped in your sandbed. How deep is your sand bed ?

[SaltyBoG Water]

DON"T trust your supplier ever either. They are in it to make money. Keep that in mind

[Blown 346]

By disturbing the sand bed you can disturb gases that can do the tank harm. I also dont touch the sandbed, thats what snails etc are for.