Syphoning detritus from sand bed?

[MAXreefer]

I noticed there are always a few spots in the tank where some detritus accumulates.

Probably a good way to get rid of it is to syphon it out maybe once weekly.
Trying to do that of course you also syphon some sand out and at some point you would have lost quite some sand.

What would you do?

• Just toss everything you syphon out and after a couple months add some new sand?
• Rinse the stuff you syphoned out with RO/DI water and put the sand back into the tank or is it impossible to rinse out the detritus just having clean sand left?

Thanks for suggestions
Michael

 

[90greefman]

Get one of these
Aqueon Siphon Vacuum Gravel Cleaner
The base is larger than the siphon tube so it will pull some sand up but mostly detritus. The siphon is not strong enough so most of the sand will simply fall back down. You can also control the flow of the siphon if too much sand gets into the siphon tube by crimping the tube a little and restricting the flow. No reason to toss any sand with this method.
I have a 4-5" sandbed and I dont siphon at all. Bacteria in the sand bed breaks down any detritus, pretty much a biological filter. However I do have a diamond goby and sand sifting star. They keep the top layer pretty mixed up and this allows the majority of debris to go straight to the overlfows. Hope this answers your question.