stiring sand bed

[CoralWealth]

Who does this? If you do, when do you do it and why?

If you don't do it, why not? Just because you are lazy or scared to stir up too much?

I currently do not but I am thinking about doing this to stir up the detritus in the DT that the flow is not getting (like in the corners) I am thinking about doing it like once every 2 days that way it is never too much at once. I run filter socks so I am not worried about it collecting in the sump but more worried if it will affect my SPS. I am SPS heavy, but thinking about it I think it may have a good impact on them as it just getting the nutrients (fish poop) more into the system. Unless I am missing something here.

 

[Salty1962]

It's OK to stir up the very top, 1/2~1", of your sand bed but don't go too deep as it will release toxins, H2S, in your tank.

 

[saltyfilmfolks]

If the sand is mostly clean and its fine.

 

[revhtree]

I know @Terence just stirs his up! Maybe he'll chime in!

 

[revhtree]

If the sand is mostly clean and its fine.

I forgot I bought one of these just because of this video! HA!

 

[Robthorn]

I have been stirring my sand for close to 20 years. If I have been lazy and I haven't touched it for months I only do about 25% of the sand at a time. Normally I just stir up the section I have my hand in.
I move sand dwelling corals out of the way and stir under them.

I go all the way to the glass bottom. Always have.

If you are a Ron Shimek fan and believe in very deep sand beds I do not recommend stirring to deep.

 

[BlueCursor]

My diamondback gobi constantly stirs my 2-3" sand. Stirring is not the issue. The issue is not stirring for a period then stirring. So if you start, stir a small portion only, few days later stir a different portion. Work your way up to stirring more and more of the sand bed.

Stirring an older sand bed can release lots of phosphates, and other accumulated stuff, so the older your bed the slower you progress with the amount you stir.

 

[ncaldwell]

I have a cheap pump attached to some 3/8 tubing and a plastic pipe I use to stir mine up every day. All my lps and sps open up to feed when I do

 

[CoralWealth]

Thanks everyone for the replies! I appreciate it.

My sandbed is pretty thin where most spots are maybe 1 inch but most likely less and closer to .5 inches. I think I am going to start stiring it every couple of days to keep everything in the water column for the corals and also the skimmer to take out. My phosphates are always so low around 0.02 using hanna ULR and my nitrates around 4-8.

 

[CoralWealth]

If the sand is mostly clean and its fine.

This is exactly how I would clean mine. So more of blasting the sand then stirring it.

 

[atoll]

I use a turkey baster and give the and a good old hard blow which releases a fair bit of detritus into the water column. I do this for 2 reasons. Firstly I tend to get a little cyno on some parts of the sand when I leave it too long and yes I have a lot of flow in my tank. Secondly, I try to do it after lights out to feed some of my corals, detritus being a good coral food of course.

 

[Shadowspop]

Perfect timing for this thread. My tank is only set up for a few weeks, but I just stirred up a small area and couldn't believe how much came up. Gonna start doing it regularly.

 

[CoralWealth]

I use a turkey baster and give the and a good old hard blow which releases a fair bit of detritus into the water column. I do this for 2 reasons. Firstly I tend to get a little cyno on some parts of the sand when I leave it too long and yes I have a lot of flow in my tank. Secondly, I try to do it after lights out to feed some of my corals, detritus being a good coral food of course.

Never thought about doing it after lights out but thats a good idea.

 

[ChicagoGeorge]

First let me say that I've only been in the reef aquarium hobby for a little over a year. That being said, I stir up my sand bed all the way to the glass bottom every other water change. Haven't had an issue yet. My sand bed is only 2" deep.

 

[radiata]

I let my cucumbers and my Tongan Nassarius Vibex snails stir the sand for me. The only time I get involved is when I'm moving a few rocks around.

 

[Donovan Joannes]

NOOOOO! if is an established deep sand bed. YESSSS! detritus is part of coral's food.

 

[Maacc]

It's OK to stir up the very top, 1/2~1", of your sand bed but don't go too deep as it will release toxins, H2S, in your tank.

I do parts of mine every week or every other week.

 

[Rick cowen]

I have snails and sand sifting starfish that do a real good job, plus sand sifting gobies, I also stir my sand bed in 1/4 sections at a time, usually a couple of days spacing. In between sections,I've had great success with this

 

[Forsaken77]

I usually vacuum the sand down to the glass when I do a water change. On my bigger tank I plan on using a finer sand (pink Arag-Alive). Right now I use Hawaiian Black sand and the particles are to big and let a bunch of detritus through.

I saw a video on YouTube where a guy was having Nitrate and Phosphate issues. He set up a HUUUGE refugium, didn't help, a remote deep sand bed, didn't work. Then he switched to a small grain sand and it didn't allow detritus through. Solved his issue. I think he switched to Oolite. But I'm not going that small.

Imo, those old school fluidized sand filters work better than a remote deep sand bed or refugium for nutrient control. You just need a tall one for denitrification. I also saw people putting NPX bio-plastics balls on top of the sand in those reactors, but they were really letting the sand fly around for just aerobic bacteria. But these are great for anaerobic bacteria to promote denitrification. Seems like a forgotten thing in the hobby. You can even fill it with oolite sand to buffer the calcium and Ph

 

[Sir Chris]

This is weird as 3 days ago I took a pic at petco of there sand. Also should I get this derasa clam 40$. Came in 2day want a maxima really but it's beautiful and no foot stone. This is all relative but wanna know that much and the bubbles can cause devastation if released in bulk so I do finger drags once a week and a few bubbles exit and the bacteria starts over b4 it turns into a big bubble that releases itself!!!