I'm going to rinse my sand bed. Who else has done this?

Have you ever "rinsed" your sand bed?

  • Yes

    Votes: 111 23.8%
  • No

    Votes: 293 62.9%
  • Not sure what that does

    Votes: 62 13.3%

  • Total voters
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Daniel@R2R

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Everytime I change my water, I try to stir parts of the sand bed to clean it some, but it's always a detritus trap. I don't think I'd ever want to go BB, but after reading THIS THREAD on sand rinsing, I'm going to try this. I'm going to pull my sand bed and rinse it completely till there's no cloud left coming out of it.

Who else has tried this?
 

madweazl

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I vacuum mine about twice a year and dont get that much detritus out of it (always less than I expected anyways). I cant imagine anything good coming from rinsing the sand of an established system. I know that member views sand as the root of all evil but in 20+ years in the hobby, I've never had the sand be the issue with my systems.
 

TheHarold

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I mix mine up by hand every month, and barely anything comes out. The tank is just cloudy for an hour or two.

Nutrient import/export balance is more important in my opinion. If you are not exporting well or maintaining the sand bed, yes, it will get quite dirty.
 

AZMSGT

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I would suggest doing only a section at a time and make it part of your regular maintenance. Defiantly wouldn’t do it all at once.

Didn’t read that post.. but after watching some of the BRS videos on the subject has me convinced that the sand bed filth can be dealt with, just over a long time and regularly.
 

LovesDogs_CatsRokay

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I completely replaced my sand bed 2 months ago. Went from black to white sand. I rinsed it really well and and completely stir it up with no clouding. It’s nice when the sand burying wrasses bury, they send up grains of sand but it settles again within seconds. I vacuum it with my weekly water changes to keep it clean.
 

redfishbluefish

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I haven't read the linked post, but I'm a sand cleaner....when I do tank transfers. I take the sand and using a 5 gallon bucket, fill about 1/3 of the way with the dirty sand and using a garden hose, fill and dump maybe about ten times until water is running clear. The sand is then spread of large trays and allowed to dry.

Drying Sand.jpg
 
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Daniel@R2R

Daniel@R2R

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Agreed with doing it slowly over time. Especially if you have some deep spots that have collected alot over time, you can end up releasing alot of built up toxins and waste at once that your tank can't efficiently deal with.
It's not a very deep sand bed. It's got plenty of detritus, but I'm not too worried about releasing pockets of stuff.
 

BGrand

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Rinsed mine before I set up the tank new corner tank in January. I am completely sold on rinsing.

I did not rinse the sand before setting up my nano before the one mentioned above and constantly had problems with the sand. Just took it bare bottom about two months ago. Everything for now seems to be going well. If I put sand back in it you better believe I will rinse it.
 

DMG Reef

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I also rinsed my sand when I set up my new tank. I was surprised at the amount of silt in new bags of sand. Definitely didn't want that in the new tank.

I didn't experience any problems doing it.
 

Paul Sands

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How is rinsing your sand better than just vacuuming it? It’s easy to vacuum an entire sand bed by running the gravel vac to a filter sock in your sump. You can vacuum all day long if you want and get all the detritus.

Taking your sand out of the tank and rinsing it in tap water will destroy all the beneficial critters that are currently living in your sand bed and helping you out. Not to mention it seems like a ton of work.
 
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Daniel@R2R

Daniel@R2R

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How is rinsing your sand better than just vacuuming it? It’s easy to vacuum an entire sand bed by running the gravel vac to a filter sock in your sump. You can vacuum all day long if you want and get all the detritus.

Taking your sand out of the tank and rinsing it in tap water will destroy all the beneficial critters that are currently living in your sand bed and helping you out. Not to mention it seems like a ton of work.
I don't think it's going to be that much work. The answer to your first question about how it's more beneficial is that it's more thorough. As far as losing the critters living there, there's plenty living in the rock work. I'm not pulling the rocks out just the sand bed that's removable from around the rocks.
 

Flippers4pups

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I don't think it's going to be that much work. The answer to your first question about how it's more beneficial is that it's more thorough. As far as losing the critters living there, there's plenty living in the rock work. I'm not pulling the rocks out just the sand bed that's removable from around the rocks.

Daniel, just out of curiosity, what type sand do you have?
 

Paul Sands

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I don't think it's going to be that much work. The answer to your first question about how it's more beneficial is that it's more thorough. As far as losing the critters living there, there's plenty living in the rock work. I'm not pulling the rocks out just the sand bed that's removable from around the rocks.

I think it’s debatable that it’s more thorough than vacuuming. If you are just putting sand in a bucket and rinsing and stirring it, you aren’t getting everything out either. If you are using tap water, the chlorine in the tap water is really the only difference. I guess if you want to kill everything living in your sand that’s your prerogative.

When I vacuum my sand I usually go through the whole aquarium twice. There’s very little detritus left during the second pass. I occasionally get a few spots I may have missed on the initial pass. I can do this in less than an hour. It would take me at least a day to take all the sand out, rinse it, and replace it.

I honestly don’t see the point in taking sand out unless you have something in your sand bed that you are trying to eradicate. Even then, there are better, easier ways.
 

madweazl

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I don't think it's going to be that much work. The answer to your first question about how it's more beneficial is that it's more thorough. As far as losing the critters living there, there's plenty living in the rock work. I'm not pulling the rocks out just the sand bed that's removable from around the rocks.

Is something going on that you're trying to correct or just a wild hair?
 
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Daniel@R2R

Daniel@R2R

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Daniel@R2R

Daniel@R2R

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Is something going on that you're trying to correct or just a wild hair?
It's mostly a wild hair. LOL I read the sand rinse thread and thought about all the junk I see in mine everytime I do a water change. So I'd like to reset it. My tank was very neglected for over a year, and now I'm just getting everything back on track, so this is part of that.
 

andrewkw

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Even rinsing new sand out of the bag is too much work. When I had my garden eel tank I had to rinse the new sand and when I moved it 6-10" deep and a 36x24 footprint. I still have the sand in 5 gallon buckets under my deck in case I ever get garden eels again or something that deeps a deep sand bed like a hadoni. Otherwise though bare bottom is just so much easier / better once you get used to it. Try it for a couple of weeks or months and you might be surprised how much you like it. I don't think I'll ever go back to a sandbed unless I need it, it took me a long time to realize this which is why I'm pushing you towards it even though you mentioned you did not want bare bottom.
 
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