Siphoning sand question

[Sophie"s mom]

Just a curiosity question here, does anyone here NOT disturb their sand bed? When doing water changes or anything like that? Does anyone use leave that completely to their sand sifting tank inhabitants? Or do you all consider sand cleaning a must do?

 

[Mr. Mojo Rising]

I've never cleaned the sand in any of my tanks, my sandbeds are all years old at this point, my oldest is 6 years.

 

[exnisstech]

I never clean the sand.

 

[Sophie"s mom]

I've never cleaned the sand in any of my tanks, my sandbeds are all years old at this point, my oldest is 6 years.

Yay! This is what I have done so far in my 2 1/12 year journey! I just wasn’t sure it was right. I have a diamond goby, a YWG, 2 tiger conch’s, several nassarius! So I always felt it should be fine. Just thought I would pose the question. Thank you.

 

[Sophie"s mom]

I never clean the sand.

Thank you! This was my thinking, just wanted to be sure!

 

[exnisstech]

I've read of many people that do clean them. My sand is always full of life that I feel is beneficial even if most are worms. I don't clean my sumps for the same reason, there's just too many life forms living in all of the crud aka mulm.

 

[Sophie"s mom]

I've read of many people that do clean them. My sand is always full of life that I feel is beneficial even if most are worms. I don't clean my sumps for the same reason, there's just too many life forms living in all of the crud aka mulm.

Exactly!

 

[Puggz]

I've read of many people that do clean them. My sand is always full of life that I feel is beneficial even if most are worms. I don't clean my sumps for the same reason, there's just too many life forms living in all of the crud aka mulm.

Agreed, but what about a FOWLR? There's no CUC to be found..

 

[exnisstech]

Agreed, but what about a FOWLR? There's no CUC to be found..

I've never done a fowlr but i imagine worms and such would be good. I don't add a lot of sand sifters so mine run basically undisturbed. I've always thought of sand as something you clean all the time or none of the time.

 

[Puggz]

I've never done a fowlr but i imagine worms and such would be good. I don't add a lot of sand sifters so mine run basically undisturbed. I've always thought of sand as something you clean all the time or none of the time.

How about "controlled" siphoning. 25% of the sand bed with each water change? Or scale it based on the water change value. 10% WC, vacuum 10% of the sand bed. Just thinking out loud.

 

[exnisstech]

How about "controlled" siphoning. 25% of the sand bed with each water change? Or scale it based on the water change value. 10% WC, vacuum 10% of the sand bed. Just thinking out loud.

I couldn't say, it's not something I've ever tried but I do remember reading of some folks that cleaned a different section each time they did a WC but have no idea how it worked long term.

 

[Puggz]

I couldn't say, it's not something I've ever tried but I do remember reading of some folks that cleaned a different section each time they did a WC but have no idea how it worked long term.

I think the issue is ending up with sections of sand with undesirable bacteria (aerobic). I'm not sure, are some anaerobic beneficial? Are some an issue?

 

[vetteguy53081]

I occasionally lightly siphon sand every 4 months to remove excess detritus buildup otherwise undisturbed

 

[MadreeferNJ]

You will suck up sand and over time will need to add more sand. Ask me how I know..lol
Some people just gently stir it up occasionally.

 

[exnisstech]

I think the issue is ending up with sections of sand with undesirable bacteria (aerobic). I'm not sure, are some anaerobic beneficial? Are some an issue?

I lack the knowledge to answer that.

 

[Puggz]

I lack the knowledge to answer that.

Yea, me too.

 

[PharmrJohn]

I never cleaned the sand in any of my tanks. But I had some wildlife in my 90 that would do it for me.

 

[JumboShrimp]

I use a giant Python siphon on my 150 gallon FOWLR sand beds, WHEN I think about it / get around to it / feel in the mood. Average about twice a year. I do the whole thing at once-- no CUC, as someone guessed-- and with all my live rock and sump I'm sure doing the whole things rather than sections has little impact. So that's my 2-cents.

 

[Puggz]

I use a giant Python siphon on my 150 gallon FOWLR sand beds, WHEN I think about it / get around to it / feel in the mood. Average about twice a year. I do the whole thing at once-- no CUC, as someone guessed-- and with all my live rock and sump I'm sure doing the whole things rather than sections has little impact. So that's my 2-cents.

but you're a jumbo shrimp (oxymoron), should I even believe you??? :-D

 

[Ryan - Serious Reefs]

Just a curiosity question here, does anyone here NOT disturb their sand bed? When doing water changes or anything like that? Does anyone use leave that completely to their sand sifting tank inhabitants? Or do you all consider sand cleaning a must do?

I don’t know if there’s a single right answer here. A lot of it comes down to mentality and what you believe the sand bed should be doing in your system.

For a long time I thought of sand as the reefing version of a dirty litter box. So much waste settles into it. If you stir it up, you can certainly watch the brown cloud of crud come out.

Because of that, my approach used to be aggressive siphoning during water changes. I would vacuum the sand bed every time. Over the years that shifted. First I moved to siphoning only portions of the sand at a time, rotating sections so the whole bed wasn’t disturbed at once.

These days I mostly leave the sand alone and put more effort into organisms that slowly clean and process it for me. The idea is letting biology do the work rather than constantly resetting the sand bed myself.

Things like:
• Sand sifting fish
• Sand sifting starfish
• Cucumbers
• Nassarius snails
• Pods
• I haven't tried a Conch yet but will on my next tank.

Many of these will continuously turn the sand over, consume trapped organics, break waste down and keep it oxygenated without the big disruptive events that come from heavy siphoning.

Personally I’ve just found that letting the sand bed function more like a living filter and less like something I’m constantly cleaning has worked better for me over time.