" MY WHITE SAND METHOD "

[blusop]

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 to keep a good look sand bed and to release toxins "BEFORE" they build up....a Preventive Measure .
You need to section your tank off in 3 stages....Start in stage "1" stirring your sand..."ONLY STAGE 1" for 7 days....on day 8 Start stirring Stage 1 & 2 ....Stir stage 1 & 2 for 7 more days....on day 15 stir Stage 1, 2, & 3 for 7 more days ...in 21 days you will have completely stirred your whole sandbed and released the built up toxins slow enough to not cause a problem...if your tank is over 1 year old...i advise adding the appropriate amount of Chemipure Elite or Chemipure Blue to alleviate excess toxins...once you complete this 21 day process just stir your sand daily and it will always remain white and pretty.

 

[Diesel]

Interesting!!
What made you do it like this?










[HASHTAG]#reefsquad[/HASHTAG]

 

[blusop]

Interesting!!
What made you do it like this?

[HASHTAG]#reefsquad[/HASHTAG]

I was looking for a way to keep my sand bed from looking nasty ...snails , crabs, starfish did o.k. but never got the glass area up front clean for me...i still had to go and scrape the glass and stir the sand up to get it back white....i developed this method like 4 years ago...and perfected it over that time...plus i wanted a way to do away with "OLD TANK SYNDROME" and never be worried about moving rock and having a tank crash...so this is what i came up with. ..that picture above is a lil older ...i recently rescaped and the sand is still the same sand from 2 years ago

 

[reeferfoxx]

I like that people are finally cleaning up their nasty sandbeds! Although, I think your method is sound and works great for you, for me, I just siphon the sandbed during water changes. I do portions though, just like you. Typically I do half the sandbed one week, then the other half the next week. I do it this way just in case there are toxins. By siphoning, i'm sucking up any toxins and then replenishing with fresh water, because I don't run chemi-pure or carbon. So far, no ill effects doing it this way.

 

[blusop]

I like that people are finally cleaning up their nasty sandbeds! Although, I think your method is sound and works great for you, for me, I just siphon the sandbed during water changes. I do portions though, just like you. Typically I do half the sandbed one week, then the other half the next week. I do it this way just in case there are toxins. By siphoning, i'm sucking up any toxins and then replenishing with fresh water, because I don't run chemi-pure or carbon. So far, no ill effects doing it this way.

Glad to hear it man .....i see too many beautiful tanks with nasty sandbeds...not just how it looks but what's lurking underneath is scary...tank on the verge of algae problems or worse...good you found a method that works keep up the good work .

 

[reeferfoxx]

Glad to hear it man .....i see too many beautiful tanks with nasty sandbeds...not just how it looks but what's lurking underneath is scary...tank on the verge of algae problems from hell or worse...good you found a method that works keep up the good work .

Who came up with the whole, don't touch the sandbed method? When I first started reefing, i read about how you shouldn't stir up the sandbed yada yada yada.. But that we should have snails, and starfish and gobies to help strip up the sandbed. Wait, WHAT!? Don't touch sandbed but buy this group of live stock to do it for you, because if YOU stir up the bed, YOU release toxins. I'm sorry but that logic never stuck with me. Therefore I vacuum religiously.

 

[blusop]

Who came up with the whole, don't touch the sandbed method? When I first started reefing, i read about how you shouldn't stir up the sandbed yada yada yada.. But that we should have snails, and starfish and gobies to help strip up the sandbed. Wait, WHAT!? Don't touch sandbed but buy this group of live stock to do it for you, because if YOU stir up the bed, YOU release toxins. I'm sorry but that logic never stuck with me. Therefore I vacuum religiously.

Lol i think that logic came about because NOBODY disturbed their sandbed at first then developed "OLD TANK SYNDROME" and when they did disturb it from either moving residency or rescaped their tanks they encountered "DEATH" so they changed the theory of not disturbing the sand to disturbing it in smaller areas to release the toxins slowly. ..I'm just taking it to the next level...Disturb It Daily so i can not only keep a clean & neat sandbed but prevent "OLD TANK SYNDROME & TOXIC BUILD UP" early...a proactive method if you want to call it that

 

[Waters]

Funny, I actually do the same thing with the exact same tool I have always stirred my sand beds daily from day one so I never had to worry about releasing anything. My weekly water changes involve vacuuming the entire sandbed also.

 

[ksc]

I haven't touched my sand bed in 8 years. The only thing it's releasing is nitrate bubbles. When do you think "OLD TANK SYNDROME" will start? I think it's just another "OLD REEFERS MYTH"...

 

[blusop]

I haven't touched my sand bed in 8 years. The only thing it's releasing is nitrate bubbles. When do you think "OLD TANK SYNDROME" will start? I think it's just another "OLD REEFERS MYTH"...

That's what "OLD TANK SYNDROME" really is

 

[blusop]

Funny, I actually do the same thing with the exact same tool I have always stirred my sand beds daily from day one so I never had to worry about releasing anything. My weekly water changes involve vacuuming the entire sandbed also.

Lol what are the odds..cool man

 

[Lasse]

Hi

Can anyone tell me exactly which toxins can be released from the sand bed? And which toxins are responsible for "Old Tank Syndrome"?

Sincerely Lasse

 

[blusop]

Hi

Can anyone tell me exactly which toxins can be released from the sand bed? And which toxins are responsible for "Old Tank Syndrome"?
Lasse

The term "Old Tank Syndrome" is commonly used to refer to a series of related water quality issues, generally indicated by high nitrate levels. In closed aquarium systems, impurities such as nitrate increase over time and cannot be efficiently removed through conventional filtration alone......this is an internet explanation but it sums it up well....also hydrogen sulfide can form over time from the build up as well....problems will form such as hair algae, higher nitrate levels that you can't control without extreme measures.

 

[ksc]

Hi

Can anyone tell me exactly which toxins can be released from the sand bed? And which toxins are responsible for "Old Tank Syndrome"?

Sincerely Lasse

Here's a little better explanation...

http://www.advancedaquarist.com/2006/5/aafeature2

 

[Lasse]

The term "Old Tank Syndrome" is commonly used to refer to a series of related water quality issues, generally indicated by high nitrate levels. In closed aquarium systems, impurities such as nitrate increase over time and cannot be efficiently removed through conventional filtration alone......this is an internet explanation but it sums it up well....also hydrogen sulfide can form over time from the build up as well....problems will form such as hair algae, higher nitrate levels that you can't control without extreme measures.

This make no sense because hydrogen sulphide will normally not be formed if there is nitrate in the water column or in the sand bed. And nitrate is not a toxin and you do not get hairy algae only because your nitrate level is high.

Here's a little better explanation...

http://www.advancedaquarist.com/2006/5/aafeature2

For me the article is more about poor husbandry than it describes a general valid syndrome
Sincerely Lasse

 

[d2mini]

I've always believed the sand bed has it's role in the mini eco-system some of us are creating in our tanks.
There is a big difference between what snails and other critters do in the sand bed vs you moving a bunch of rocks and kicking up clouds of gunk.
I don't think there is anything wrong with the OP's approach, and I do like to keep that front edge clean if I can. You can go without a sand bed completely, too.
So in this case, the sand is purely decoration.
But I like to let nature do it's thing and leave it mostly undisturbed.

 

[Russ265]

i just suck my entire bed out. rinse in 5 gallon buckets. then put it back in.

may get a bloom if your tank is less than a year old.

id only do it for shallow sand beds

 

[rufus2008]

Do like I did and buy 2 convict Blenny's they do the stirring for you.

 

[revhtree]

Can you grab a video of how you stir the bed?

 

[brandon429]

OTS literally shaped the existence of todays current nano reefs and pico reefs. without its acknowledgement, nano reefing would still be in 1997 where the smallest that could ever, ever survive was 15 gallons. since we are free to rip clean, rip export misbehaving nano reefs, we compile all these tank fixes that threads show. many of them were prior OTS candidates and that was measurable, not just a catch term. It was measurable in their actual sandbed vs water column measures for waste, N and P and its varying oxidative forms.

We are discussing OTS as a lethal event in this thread and it rarely is, OTS expresses in tanks as what adding 15 extra fish would do, its a bioload addition not so much a source of doom.

So when people with large tanks who have sandbeds that if I tested a scoop of their lower third would register 40+ ppm, yet their water tables are clean, we know they are using bandaid offsets for having stored the source. not that the tank is mid death

If you disturb a hands off sandbed that's full of waste (moves, emergency changes, I dropped a rock and kicked up a cloud of doom) then having a stored up bed matters.

Its not that OTS kills tanks, its that 1% of hands off sandbeds aren't a total liability in the making, and nano and pico reefs model things even better in reality less the dilution to provide all the safety the big tankers think the crudded up bed isn't affecting.

To large tankers, OTS isn't real and takes a long time if ever. But to small tankers, the algae invaded, those who couldn't walk the line, that dirty sandbed is the cause of everything you are having to bandaid. that's OTS


if I came to a large tankers house and siphoned out a test bin of lower third of the bed and it wasn't spiked with nitrates, id say they planned well and are the minority of sandbedders. the rinsed bed is safer, but not required, the whole hobby (and the mitigations people ask for today) is built on the hands off, OTS prone mode.

Rinsing sandbeds is borderline offensive thought to someone with a multi hundred gallon tank with typical DSB that maybe be 7-13 years old

For anyone with that set of params and no problems, by all means don't rinse you might set something off

heh