Sandbed cleaning and phosphate spike

Lavey29

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So I haven't really been deep cleaning my sandbed the past 7 months just surface siphon and turkey blow the top. I was told I need to really get into it and mix the sand around. It's only 2" deep but there is brown left over diatoms and or cyano mixed in it in layers. Just has an ugly look. I thought it would eventually decay and fade away on its own but nope.

I used my turkey baster and got down in there blowing sand around. Did about 25% of the bottom and sure enough my phosphate spiked to .35 just from that. No nitrate increase but I was worried about ammonia spike to but fish seem fine.

How often do you guys deep clean the sandbed? Do you get spikes to?
 

Idoc

Getting lazier and lazier with upkeep!
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I don't specifically deep clean my sand bed, but I do sift deeply with my siphon when doing water changes. I haven't noticed specific spikes, but I haven't actually checked for them either.
 
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Lavey29

Lavey29

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I don't specifically deep clean my sand bed, but I do sift deeply with my siphon when doing water changes. I haven't noticed specific spikes, but I haven't actually checked for them either.
I didn't see spikes just siphon cleaning the top layer but when I pushed the turkey baster deep and blew the sand around I could see some gas bubbles released also.
 

brandon429

why did you put a reef in that
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I have noticed that in sandbed cleaning reports and ive noticed fish kills when the mixes in the sandbed are toxic

why keep something this liable in a delicate reef tank? All the money and stress people spend on po4 controls only to pump it by the minute from the waste zone, how about we rip clean your tank so you won’t have a land mine up underneath the animals and rocks

clearly the bed has reached max storage level if it’s not full of just inert harmless minerals.

people choose bare bottom for this very reason, we could skip cycle remove your whole sandbed all at once then no more headache
 
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Lavey29

Lavey29

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I have noticed that in sandbed cleaning reports and ive noticed fish kills when the mixes in the sandbed are toxic

why keep something this liable in a delicate reef tank? All the money and stress people spend on po4 controls only to pump it by the minute from the waste zone, how about we rip clean your tank so you won’t have a land mine up underneath the animals and rocks

clearly the bed has reached max storage level if it’s not full of just inert harmless minerals.

people choose bare bottom for this very reason, we could skip cycle remove your whole sandbed all at once then no more headache
There are benefits and drawbacks to having some sand. Mainly for me it's the visual appeal along with certain fish that I have that require sand. But I am concerned about releasing toxic levels during cleaning.
 

brandon429

why did you put a reef in that
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Risk % is this:

98% are ok with being disturbed the trade off is extended gha issues or cyano. 2% when disturbed kill fish, I have about four threads handy where even one handful of sand from an old system cast into a new one killed a huge amount of fish. Bacterial toxins yet to be defined seem to be at play, as messing with totally clean rinsed sand has never harmed anyone’s reef, or spiked any param.

if you have a nano then a rip clean is ideal because you get all your sand back. That’s how mine runs, it’s a super clean white deep sand bed. there’s nothing in the sand you actually need, it’s bioload just like keep a big nasty goldfish in the tank :)

you can do without it’s mega count fauna oxygen sapping bacteria at any time, the po4 stores, unknown bacterial compounds and still keep the sand. As is, you’re more likely to fall into the 98% category. Remember the setup as is doesn’t allow for mistakes. It’s safe because you don’t have a rock slide to mass release, or a power head that has come loose and aimed down. Being rip cleaned is the safest strongest your reef will be, because it’s pores are opened vs clogged and you can pack the corals with renewed clean protein feed, a positive mass building timeframe. Filled up sandbeds cause the reefer to withhold things-atrophy and a shift towards plant balance follows.


some folks use very busy fish to actually deep clean the sand and that works great, qt them first before addition.
 
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Lavey29

Lavey29

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Risk % is this:

98% are ok with being disturbed the trade off is extended gha issues or cyano. 2% when disturbed kill fish, I have about four threads handy where even one handful of sand from an old system cast into a new one killed a huge amount of fish. Bacterial toxins yet to be defined seem to be at play, as messing with totally clean rinsed sand has never harmed anyone’s reef, or spiked any param.

if you have a nano then a rip clean is ideal because you get all your sand back. That’s how mine runs, it’s a super clean white deep sand bed. there’s nothing in the sand you actually need, it’s bioload just like keep a big nasty goldfish in the tank :)

you can do without it’s mega count fauna oxygen sapping bacteria at any time, the po4 stores, unknown bacterial compounds and still keep the sand. As is, you’re more likely to fall into the 98% category. Remember the setup as is doesn’t allow for mistakes. It’s safe because you don’t have a rock slide to mass release, or a power head that has come loose and aimed down. Being rip cleaned is the safest strongest your reef will be, because it’s pores are opened vs clogged and you can pack the corals with renewed clean protein feed, a positive mass building timeframe. Filled up sandbeds cause the reefer to withhold things-atrophy and a shift towards plant balance follows.


some folks use very busy fish to actually deep clean the sand and that works great, qt them first before addition.
What does kind of concern me is that I'm only able to clean a small portion of sand to due to all the hardscape. I wonder what's growing in the caves and under the rocks.
 
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