Clean Sand: Is it sustainable and how much care does it take?

[SMB]

I would clean my sand but it's concrete now.

 

[vetteguy53081]

I disturb what little I have as little as possible. It sustains bacteria and other forms of life. My filter should be keeping up with it.

 

[See Gee Sea]

I have in my 73 display a banded sleeper goby, 2 fighting conchs, and 2 Babylonian snails in addition to your usual cleanup crew and I got this and somehow I have 10PPM nitrates and 0 phosphates. I’m firing all of them!

 

[Jammie]

I have had problems with sand when my tank was new. I fixed the problem by adding a sand sifting starfish and conch. They do a pretty good job in my 36 gallon. I also suck up the sand when doing my water change every 2 to 3 weeks. When I had diatoms I sucked it up off my sand bed and added a nice layer of new live sand. My sand bed stays pretty nice. I will say I had a diamond goby and he does a nice job but died so I do want to add another.

 

[RobB'z Reef]

1. Is having a consistent clean sand bed something that is sustainable?
As a general rule I think it's sustainable with a medium to large effort depending on your tank goals and bio-load
2. How do you keep your sand bed clean? What does your maintenance look like?
In the past it was siphoning and regular agitation.
3. Any tips and tricks to keeping your sand clean?
I'll defer to those with more experience

So how long is sustainable really for most people? I think it's fair to say in most cases (statistically speaking) anything over 5 years is a really long time. A ten year tank is an exception to the rule as applied to all tanks across the hobby to those who are currently in and the vast number of people who tried and are no longer keeping a tank for a plethora of reasons. Just as a kind of visual imagine the graph below that illustrates the sample population i just described (all tanks of those in and now out). I'm generalizing of course but we know anecdotally that it's super hard to have a ten year tank. Not just from it being hard from a reef keeping perspective and husbandry but life just plain gets in the way and people upgrade, change their goals etc.. I believe the vast number of tanks to fall into the 2-5 year range. Yes there are plenty of people here who have older tanks and kudos! But those people are on the tails of the curve, just like the < 1 year folks. I just thought this might further the debate is all. I see merits to sand and no sand, I'm not pimping for or against either

 

[Midrats]

Doesn't a goby spitting sand all over your corals and rock drive you guys nuts?

 

[Marc2952]

Easy

I had one and he was amazing at keeping the sandbed clean, too bad i lost him to velvet but i will definitely get one soon.

 

[D-Nak]

I've tried diamond gobies on numerous occasions and all of them died after a few months (I assume it was starvation). I feel like I have bad luck when selecting specimens because other people have success. Any tips on keeping them fat and happy?

 

[tdlawdo]

Not sure what you mean by clean. It needs to be a bit dirty not sterile! A healthy tank with good turnover adequate stock at different levels of the food chain And good flow with minimal dead spots and I don’t think it needs much in the way of Cleaning other than maybe a periodic sand sweep but nothing too drastic.

 

[kutcha]

I have been toying around with this idea for a while and i feel this thread is the best place to ask. What if someone had a DSB tank (90 Gal) plumbed into a system would they not receive all the benefits of a DSB for the entire system without the negative effects of it being in a display tank? when i say a DSB tank i mean it is like 24" of sand and you have your sand sifting crew in there to keep the top lvls aerated.

 

[Vivid Creative Aquatics]

1. Is having a consistent clean sand bed something that is sustainable?
I believe so, but not with out a few bumps in the road. most tanks will eventually go though an ugly stage durring it;s lifetime (after the initial uglies of course) and the Sand bed is where it usually where it starts. But with a ltite attentions, it can usually be cleared up and maintained.


2. How do you keep your sand bed clean? What does your maintenance look like?
Personally, I don't do any direct maintenance on the sandbed. I have always kept a tiger pistol shrimp and goby pair to keep the sandbed turned over. It's worked well in my 8+year old mixed reef. Of course you need to make sure you rock work is secure and sometime the shrimp will do things you may not like, but that adds to the adventure - LOL


3. Any tips and tricks to keeping your sand clean?
Good water perameters are key. As is a healthy population of sand dwelling pods, crustations, worms and other tiny creatures can really contributor the health of the sand bed.

 

[DeniseAndy]

Remote DSB are not a new idea and are used by many. I would google Remote Deep Sand Bed. Could get info you are looking for.

 

[najer]

This was earlier for another thread, notice no "bits", engineer goby, cave goby, conch, dove snails and pods, I disturb it when I have to move things.

 

[tritonpower]

I've tried diamond gobies on numerous occasions and all of them died after a few months (I assume it was starvation). I feel like I have bad luck when selecting specimens because other people have success. Any tips on keeping them fat and happy?

I've had mine for 5 months. getting really skinny. read on a different post recently you can try squirting food into its burrow. just started doing it....we'll see.

 

[WendyLady]

Cleaning sand has always been an important part of a successful sand reef. Dr. Ron got nearly everything right with his DSB methodology, only they do need cleaned from time to time. While the stuff in the sand ends up being inert, the detritus can gum up the works and needs removed. Starting on about year four, I vacuum out about 1/4 of my sand every three months. You need to go SLOW so that the oxic and anoxic regions in the other sections can do their jobs. Once you see the cucumbers, conchs and other stuff move to the cleaned sections, then you will see how much better this is. You also might need to replace some sand if it dissolves and stuff.

I used 3 inches of sand, which keeps my nitrate low, but detectable. I never have to worry about this. I also love the microfauna that are in the sand that will keep the uglies at bay and also become a war-zone for any fish diseases that might want to breed there (good luck to some ich tomonts on my sandbed (or rock)).

Sandbed is only a time bomb or phosphate factory if the reefer does not know what they are doing. It takes some time to develop and it needs seeded with fauna, but I will never run a tank without a good, diverse sandbed.

I voted sustainable and minimal work since and hour every four years is not a big deal.

Hi, what is the dsb methodology?

 

[James Emory]

Today let's talk about a subject that has never been touched on in the aquarium hobby. Clean sand! HA!

If you're like me you love the look of sand in your aquarium. Clean sand, not dirty sand! If you have sand or have had sand you know that it can get dirty pretty quick and at times seems like an impossible task to always keep it clean. Can it stay clean with minimal maintenance? Can it be sustained? I know there have been times when I didn't touch my sand bed and it stayed very clean for long periods of times and then BAM it went down the drain and it became seemingly impossible to keep clean again. Let's talk about that today!

1. Is having a consistent clean sand bed something that is sustainable?

2. How do you keep your sand bed clean? What does your maintenance look like?

3. Any tips and tricks to keeping your sand clean?


Beautiful reef photo via @JohnnyTabasco

I keep mine clean by dosing Waste Away every week.

 

[Dana Riddle]

I think it depends upon the sand's grain size. I use CaribSea's 'live sand' that has a tiny size (sugar sand.) This prevents larger detritus particles from migrating far into the sand bed. Tiger conchs, bristle worms, and spaghetti worms work the sand bed, which is perhaps an inch or so deep. I can stir the sand and see very little detritus. The tank is a little over one year old. So far, so good.

 

[WendyLady]

So, I have a setup that is less than 6mos old. 36 bow front with fish only, researching corals soon.

I love my sand but now it is covered in brown diatoms. I have my own rodi and my numbers are good. My mistake was too much uv light with my new light setup. I will be vacuuming with the sock. But won't that just spread the diatoms? My turbo snails aren't able to keep up anymore. Suggestions please?

 

[WendyLady]

I have had problems with sand when my tank was new. I fixed the problem by adding a sand sifting starfish and conch. They do a pretty good job in my 36 gallon. I also suck up the sand when doing my water change every 2 to 3 weeks. When I had diatoms I sucked it up off my sand bed and added a nice layer of new live sand. My sand bed stays pretty nice. I will say I had a diamond goby and he does a nice job but died so I do want to add another.

Thanks, that is a good idea to add more sand after vacuum.

 

[madweazl]

Doesn't a goby spitting sand all over your corals and rock drive you guys nuts?

Diamond gobys tend to spit the sand out where they are rather than swimming across the tank like a golden sleeper would do. I don't like corals in the sand bed so that isn't a factor either. Current in the tank usually removes what minimal sand ends up on rocks, should it occur.