Cleaning sand bed question

[christwendt]

I have a nano with a lot of rock. It’s hard to get a siphon in there. Is turkey basting the sand allowing sand to go in turkey bastor and in a sense spreading the sand around going into the water Column and being caught by filters the same as siphoning ? In other words can I stop siphoning my sand during water change if I mix up my sand bed ?
-I’m seeing hair algae and I’m trying to figure out if it’s connected to me mixing up my sand bed often to keep it clean instead of taking it out During a water change.

 

[dreamcatcherr9]

I have a nano with a lot of rock. It’s hard to get a siphon in there. Is turkey basting the sand allowing sand to go in turkey bastor and in a sense spreading the sand around going into the water Column and being caught by filters the same as siphoning ? In other words can I stop siphoning my sand during water change if I mix up my sand bed ?
-I’m seeing hair algae and I’m trying to figure out if it’s connected to me mixing up my sand bed often to keep it clean instead of taking it out During a water change.

What’s your CUC consist of? How many? Pics?

 

[brandon429]

You should do opposite of that action, it can kill your reef, here’s how to deep clean

 

[brandon429]

See this nanos life span and cleaning here below

Official Sand Rinse and Tank Transfer thread

Quick question Brandon, I'm going to be transferring my rock, sand and livestock to another tank in the near future. I have been having issues with algea, dinos, red slime etc. Over the past few months. I vacuum my sand weekly and blow off my rocks with a baster and I can never seem to...

www.reef2reef.com

we don’t mix up we export, by disassembly cleaning, for 35 pages reefs of all sizes.

 

[christwendt]

What’s your CUC consist of? How many? Pics?

I have like 7 blue leg hermits , 2, marg snails , 2 astrea , cleaner shrimp in 20 gallons. So I’m not sure but it’s very minor green hair algae. I noticed it first last week when I was battling my Dino’s ( I raised my nitrates to 10). I’m not sure if this is bad but it’s very minor in a few spots of my tank. Should There be zero green hair algae ? I’m trying to stay on top of it so it doesn’t get worse. I did a water change and bought more hermits, and reduced my light. Over reacting ?
since water change after battling Dino’s I also added carbon and gfo back, my nitrates are 2.5-5 and .2 phosphates.

 

[brandon429]

Hey that doesn’t look bad at all. no need for deep clean we can see the sandbed cross section looks great, be siphoning out waste vs kicking it up as you do water changes

test this trick to easy guide algae in a tank like that

lift up rocks, take steak knife tip and scrape target, dislodging, working around nontargets with the tip and wipe off scrapes+ plant fragments with paper towel

remove the algae like we’re the urchin

put peroxide on the bare spot, couple drops to burn leftovers

dab area with another paper towel set back in, target cleared looks great and no big tank work. It’s making up for the few spots a cuc won’t touch, and nice job attending to it now vs total takeover.

having some gha isn’t a big deal once you find methods that rid it before total takeover, a balance is ideal. In 100% of gha infested threads we see the exact opposite: no action considered until total takeover and refusal to access rocks. I can’t even see the algae you want gone, kudos for acting early.

 

[christwendt]

Hey that doesn’t look bad at all. no need for deep clean we can see the sandbed cross section looks great, be siphoning out waste vs kicking it up as you do water changes

test this trick to easy guide algae in a tank like that

lift up rocks, take steak knife tip and scrape target, dislodging, working around nontargets with the tip and wipe off scrapes+ plant fragments with paper towel

remove the algae like we’re the urchin

put peroxide on the bare spot, couple drops to burn leftovers

dab area with another paper towel set back in, target cleared looks great and no big tank work. It’s making up for the few spots a cuc won’t touch, and nice job attending to it now vs total takeover.

having some gha isn’t a big deal once you find methods that rid it before total takeover, a balance is ideal. In 100% of gha infested threads we see the exact opposite: no action considered until total takeover and refusal to access rocks. I can’t even see the algae you want gone, kudos for acting early.

I appreciate it. What should I do if the algae is on that main big rock in the middle with a bunch of corrals glued to it? I don’t think I can get it out of the tank to treat the spots. Really appreciate the words. I learned from my Dino’s mistake letting it go too long. I knew something wasn’t right and instead of figuring it out early I kept zero nitrates for a month. It is really minor now I’ve been in the hobby 3 months even got a microscope to make sure it was green hair and not byropsis

 

[christwendt]

See this nanos life span and cleaning here below

Official Sand Rinse and Tank Transfer thread

Quick question Brandon, I'm going to be transferring my rock, sand and livestock to another tank in the near future. I have been having issues with algea, dinos, red slime etc. Over the past few months. I vacuum my sand weekly and blow off my rocks with a baster and I can never seem to...

www.reef2reef.com

we don’t mix up we export, by disassembly cleaning, for 35 pages reefs of all sizes.

Thank you I will not be mixing it up anymore. I’ve been reading your posts it’s very long and detailed I will have to continue to read tomorrow.

 

[christwendt]

See this nanos life span and cleaning here below

Official Sand Rinse and Tank Transfer thread

Quick question Brandon, I'm going to be transferring my rock, sand and livestock to another tank in the near future. I have been having issues with algea, dinos, red slime etc. Over the past few months. I vacuum my sand weekly and blow off my rocks with a baster and I can never seem to...

www.reef2reef.com

we don’t mix up we export, by disassembly cleaning, for 35 pages reefs of all sizes.

Serious question. What if your tank is so new ( 3 months ) and you mix it up once a week with a turkey bastor releasing everything into the column then change the water ? I’m trying to avoid siphoning the sand in such a small tank with so much rock.

 

[brandon429]

Yours doesn’t look darkened and bad it looks clean, I bet light stirring is like marine snow feed, be removing it sometimes though, not on constant storage mode or things compound and shift quickly. Looks nice and balanced currently, light stirring isn’t hurting.

 

[brandon429]

A thread for sand stirrers

" MY WHITE SAND METHOD "

I've always talked about this in the fb groups because i get so many questions and compliments on my sand bed ....well here's my method....note: I've never tried this on a tank older than 3 years !!!! I'm well aware of the problems that can occur on older tanks...this is a "DAILY" method i use...

www.reef2reef.com

 

[Evanbardiel]

I said just get a blenny and manually remove as much as possible and between you and the blenny that algae should be eradicated.

 

[christwendt]

Yours doesn’t look darkened and bad it looks clean, I bet light stirring is like marine snow feed, be removing it sometimes though, not on constant storage mode or things compound and shift quickly. Looks nice and balanced currently, light stirring isn’t hurting.

Thank you man. That post you posted about sand stirrers makes more sense for my small tank. If you stay on top of it, it won’t be harmful mixing it up was my theory. It’s just going to be too hard getting a siphon in this tank.

 

[christwendt]

I said just get a blenny and manually remove as much as possible and between you and the blenny that algae should be eradicated.

Awesome I was literally thinking about getting a lawn mower blenny from the lfs. My stocking is very tight in this 20 gallon if you can imagine. Is there a chance the blenny won’t touch the algae ?

 

[Ippyroy]

I use a mini 1 inch python for cleaning my sand. Works like a dream in tight places and removes very little water.

 

[Evanbardiel]

Awesome I was literally thinking about getting a lawn mower blenny from the lfs. My stocking is very tight in this 20 gallon if you can imagine. Is there a chance the blenny won’t touch the algae ?

No hes gonna do nothing but pick at those rocks. I prefer the starry blenny over the lawnmower because it will eat pretty much anything so if he kicks the algae’s butts he wont starve.