Do you touch your sand bed ???

[twintrades]

Heres a question thats been in the back of my mind... How many of you clean your sand beds. ( not a DSB )

I Havent touched mine for 2-3 yrs But i have Nassarius snails and a Tigertale cuke.

What do you do ?

 

[Swordfish215]

Sweep 30% every 2 weeks,let the rest rot......Its good to have very clean ares next to very "dirty" ones. But then again I use crushed c as a substrate. additionally I stir the bed occasionally,dendro's love it.

 

[Swordfish215]

*areas

 

[ReefPops]

I rarely touch my sandbed. Way back when I first started, almost 9 years ago I tried to vacuum a sandbed and that was just a joke. Since then I've used nassarius and will occasionally siphon out certain areas, especially if I am seeing cyano. I'm not sure if this is a good decision, but I will occasionally replace dead sand back in the tank in areas that I siphon out more to even it out. I will occasionally go through the front areas with a rake just to even it out as well. Again though, that is in the areas near the front, where things get messed with more. The back corners and middle probably haven't been touched in a year.

 

[ritter6788]

Didn't touch mine for 4 years (3-4 inches). After tons of algae problems I started to vacuum with improvements. I'm bare bottom now with no regrets.


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[Reefing Madness]

Never touch mine.

 

[NanaReefer]

Nassarius snails here and a occasional blow with the turkey baster on the surface. Otherwise nadda for 3yrs.

 

[seamonkey84]

With SSB I always prefer keeping it 1" or less to make it easier to maintain. I carefully siphon through half my sand bed every other week as I do water changes. Also with a shallower sand bed, the little amount of stirring the nassarius and cerith snails do actually make a difference. The worms, pods and micro brittle stars take care of the rest.

 

[Isoprene]

in the process of getting rid of mine, siphon out as much as possible with 5 g w/c once a week, 55 gallon, trying to go bb slowly, not trying for any type of nutrient spike, sand is annoying imo but ascetically pleasing for sure. Well kept in a tank with a variety of corals it works well, im going maximum flow and light for sps so bb works for me.

Before this I didnt touch mine for 6 months, 2 small conchs died and i started to stir it, i had weird stuff coming out of it, now i use nassarius snails and hermits to help stir it, until its eventually gone.

 

[Broadwave]

Yes, stir it once a week to keep it really clean. Also feeds the corals as well. HTH.


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[El Chavito]

I try to clean at least 25% once a year. I also got nassarius snails which help out a lot. Diamond gobies are awesome but get debris all over any corals on d sandbed.


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[Bluesaltwater87]

when i had my 75 gallon tank up and running it ran for 4 years and never messed with the sand i had a massive cleaning crew. so i didnt have too.

 

[mc-cro]

I am also in the process of removing my DSB, I thought I could get away with stirring and vacuuming the top layer, but there is just so much CRAP in it, that it has to go

 

[Betroc2]

I only clean right around the edge of glass to make it look clean. I hate to see the juck that grows in there, LOL. Let the snails and crabs do the rest.

 

[charlieborg]

Tank cleaning ?

I'm getting ready to take all my live rock and corals out of my tank and do a good cleaning. I was thinking of scrubbing the rock with a tooth brush? Also whats the best way to vacuum the sand bed?

 

[goodtimes]

I like to siphon the very top layer to freshen it up. I never go deep though.


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[mike007]

I vacumn the top layer everytime i do a water change.

 

[Paul C.]

Slowly vacuuming mine out. Going to bare bottom slowly.

 

[GnarleyMarley]

i keep nassarius snails as most do. I also change the settings on my tunze's everyonce in a while to move sand from one area to another. Depending on how i have the pumps set i will either have a bare spot in the center or on the sides. Other than that nothing for 6 years :D Also my sand bed is only 2-3" at the deepest parts and BB on the others (depending on flow pattern)

 

[WesF]

I change my flow patterns periodically to move the sand around and keep it fresh.