Can you overclean sand?

[josephxsxn]

Do you believe there could be negative impacts to the reef tank from to frequently cleaning the Sandbed?

I ask this because while originally I had planned on maybe doing 1/3rd of the bed with each water change what I found is my 10% WC is enough time for me to clean all the accessable sand. As such the last few weekends I just cleaned it all.

So what do you think? Can we over clean the sand?

 

[j.falk]

Yes.

 

[brandon429]

no

the reason why, someone with a bare bottom reef isn't having trouble minus the sand
Frag tanks run great without sand

clean sand every day = same as being bare bottom, only with calcium carbonate grains on the glass but no bad stuff (or good stuff) between the grains. reefs do not need sandbeds at all, they're merely extra bioloading if we want to have them.

 

[Nick Steele]

Yes you can maybe only do it every other month or two then.

 

[brandon429]

Official Sand Rinse and Tank Transfer thread

Not only do I love that job, I did it in my vase :) so it’s been modeled already/ done your job is just bigger. I’m going to link a thread where nobody listens regarding aiptasia removal, apply this to your mushroom tank. the sand cleaning is already covered here / ridding newly cleaned rocks...

www.reef2reef.com

that's the most cleaning possible for any sandbed (an instant 100% replacement with new sand, or tap rinsed old sand)

for outcome tracking/patterns

37 pages of the harshest sand cleaning in reefing.

If you have a certain design that precludes cleaning, don't run it.

 

[jda]

It depends. Don't listen to anybody who as an absolute on this and especially anybody who does not have a sand bed. Especially don't listen to anybody who thinks that replacing the same as cleaning since they don't likely have the breath or depth of knowledge to know what is going on.

If you are using the sandbed for anoxic bacteria home to convert nitrate into nitrogen gas, then yes, you can clean too much at once. You will disturb the zones and what was anoxic will not be oxic and vice versa. The areas will have bacterial die off in both areas and then need time to repopulate. The typical place where this can be a problem is with 2-3+ inches of sand that was established for a long time that was feeding sand-based clean up crew like cucumbers, conchs, meat eating snails, etc. You should sparingly clean these and when you do it is smart to do a very small percentage and space the cleanings out over a year, or so.

If the sand is just a decoration and not really used as a bio filter, then you can clean it as much as you want.

These two methodologies do not blend, so pick one and go for it.

 

[Epic Aquaculture]

I agree with JDA. In fact I think it's very important to keep the sand bed clean if you are not using it as a bio filter.

 

[jda]

FWIW - I keep about 3" sandbed. I let it work as a bio filter. It is a very important part of what I do and I would not have a tank without one. I don't want to work as hard with BB to have the same results and I like the looks. I vacuum about 25% of the sand every three months starting in year four of running the tank. Benign detritus builds up and while it has no more organics or energy to offer, it does gum up the works and I want to get it out. I love my sand, but it needs work every once in a while... but slowly and sparingly.

Whatever type of sand that you have, pretty much all that you will ever remove from it is benign stuff. Anything that hits the sand with some energy or building blocks is broken down and consumed likely in hours by microfauna and bacteria... and you all know how fast other fish break down fish poop by re-eating it. You are not getting out stuff that will soon contribute to a N or P problem if you let it sit around in the sandbed... that damage was done when you fed the fish.