The best way to vacuum your sand bed! Would this work?

[revhtree]

Gosh I "LOVATE" sand in my reef tank!

I'm looking for better more efficient ways to vacuum a sand bed! I would love to hear what works best for you and hopefully learn something new!

So for me I have been thinking about a new way. I have an 8ft by 3ft tank and there is a lot of sand bed. The smaller hoses don't do the trick because they don't cover as much ground, get stopped up easily and the larger hoses make the opening hard to hold open plus they pick up too much sand etc.

In the past I have suctioned the top layer of sand out and into a bucket that sits in a mop sink. This allows me to clean the sand if I want to and keeps it out of the drain too! HA! I want to use a bigger hose this time but for the reasons I mentioned I am thinking of adding some type of vacuum attachment that will insert into one end of the vinyl hose and hold it open. It will also make it easier to direct where I want to clean!

1. What do you guys think and what are the best ways you have found to vacuum your sand bed?

2. Do you like to siphon off the top layer of your sand from time to time?

image via Reef Dudes video here

 

[homer1475]

I siphon off the top layer from time to time when it gets dirty, or has a good amount of detritus built up.

I throw it in a bucket with some bleach, let it sit for a couple days. Then rinse in RO/DI, and let sit with some prime and RO/DI for a couple days. Let it air dry, and bag it up for future use. When my tank gets low, I'll just dump it back in.

Been doing it this way for years with 0 problem. My sandbed always looks nice and white.

 

[brandon429]

Nice job, that’s better than not doing any work.


in smaller systems we take them apart rinse the sand 100% clean and put the whole system back


*a large portion of reefers don’t do sandbed maintenance they use special arrangements to save work and get testy when deep cleaning is advocated.


hands off no direct cleaning doesn’t work well for the masses so as a hobby we turned away from untouched sandbeds of the 90s into cleaning them one way or another.

most people, the majority, are now manually cleaning the sand so the tank doesn’t get wrecked. There will always be posters with their own beds that require no work and are twenty years old with no invasions. That’s one of every one hundred reefs, the practical masses need actual cleaning or the hobby would have never shifted from the 90s where touching a sandbed at all was bad.

the hobby does not have ANY threads that show sandbed remediation without direct intervention. We have one off reports.

ive been waiting five years for staunch cleaning critics to make a sandbed thread where actions are handled without manual intervention. take bad sandbeds and fix them live time without cleaning, by adding things vs subtracting. Move reefs home to home keeping all sand waste in place etc




any reefer reading will benefit more from a cleaned sandbed than one allowed to store up waste, says massive cleaning sandbed work threads (Blusop’s my white sand method thread and the sand rinse thread/eighty pages of live time work between just those two)


anti deep cleaner(s) advocate a balance of animals and light cleaning to manage sandbeds, I’m not sure of the advised arrangement due to lack of application threads showing it done across many. Nobody wants to deep clean forever, someday they’ll invent working sludge digesters that work/save us from removing detritus or such threads will be in place to show working arrangements.

 

[NeonRabbit221B]

A clean sandbed is a happy sandbed. I tried to do some wacky vacuum attachment to a pump with filter material layered in a cut 2L container. Worked until I sucked up a piece of the filter and broke the pump...
Ended up going bare bottom after my apartment move in my 40B and will do regular 6 month rip cleans in my nano after having so much success with it during my move.

 

[homer1475]

ooh forgot how I do it......

Simple 1/2" vinyl hose into a filter sock in the sump. You can keep going, and going till the sock is full.

 

[brandon429]

I leave my own sandbed alone for years until I notice algae cleaning increasing and yellow hazing on glass, typical eutrophication shift.

then the diaper is changed, led lights re-ramped to follow the uber clean system, and gtg another 30 mos.

im an all at oncer but only due to small reef

if I had a reef full size it’d be the preventatives you all are doing or maybe no bed at all, coralline on bottom.

 

[SHNICI]

I never do touch my top layer of SAND. I do have DSB near ~10cm/5 inch . Have enough creatures which feed on the top layer (like sea cucumbers and many spaghetti worms in, sand sifting snails and so many bioload, so I don't want to disturb it at all . If I do it, the food source will be limited for my creatures and the system will be a bit out of balance.
So to be good enough and not problem for the environment, I'm:

• not overfeeding (if do isn't everyday and no detritus settle for days)
• not leaving place without water flow (can't see any single place in my system where food settle at all)
• not taking out the creatures which help the top sand layer to be turn little by little
• using DSB isn't huge advantage of vacuuming the top layer *otherwise what's the purpose of DSB?
• I'm also using and partial - 3/4 undergravel filter (the old school style) to use it for filter bio media for ammonia and nitrite , the rest is for nitrate (all this with a bit slow water flow thru the sand)

what else to say, in my Build thread I'll describe soon all what I'm done with/in details to be understand properly, and I know many people will say I can NUKE my tank if have to dig in by some reason, just to let you know, all who are aware not to use DSB (that's my point of view), if it's constructed properly, nothing wrong/bad can happen at all. Personally I had few times to dig in to the bottom because of different reasons, and I check the waters parameters after this jobs, and can assure you all never got any single issue with it and/or ill effect at all.

 

[Softhammer]

I use a regular freshwater Python gravel vac once a year at most. Good flow and an abundance of sand sleeping wrasses keep things pretty well in order otherwise.

 

[revhtree]

Does anyone know where Reef Dudes got that large vacuum like tube from?

 

[Ippyroy]

Does anyone know where Reef Dudes got that large vacuum like tube from?

It was just a regular tube. He said something about 3d Printing the top connecter. That is the one part that stops me from trying to do it.

 

[kev.2013]

I don’t actually siphon my sand, partially because of a cluttered sandbed and from having a smaller siphon - since I have a nano tank.

What I do instead, is use a Turkey baster to blast all the nasties from my sand into the water column. Then I just siphon out all that junk.

 

[Ippyroy]

I vacuum my sand bed with a small Python. The hose runs into a filter sock inside my sump. I clean half every other week this way the day before I do my weekly water changes. I tumble all of the sand inside the tube until it is all clean and clear. My NO3 and PO4 have remained steady since I started doing this.
Because I work to keep my sand bed clean and due to very high flow and a large sand sifting CUC I don't remove any of my sand intentionally.

 

[brandon429]

Regarding nuke vs not nuke:


again, without a massive work thread its all conjecture.


Pauls tank wont be nuked by digging into his sand, its RUGF aerated and already clean intermittently anyway.

tanks with wrasses and diamond gobies, not the same as tanks without them (and if those are the key to success, a patterned work thread w show no problems in beds using them)


So does that apply to say 200 reefs that may want help designing sandbeds? a work thread w reveal core patterns


Bob Ross painted well even with a broken stick we need something that equalizes outcomes across variations home to home. we have one way at least that does that (cleaning)


Work threads allow for this: "it didnt work"

that can never, ever happen in someone's home tank we will always get positive reports. 1 vs 200, try it.



I fully believe the two tanks above won't be nuked by access.

I also fully believe that standard cannot be met in a work thread due to unstated variations home to home and simple noncompliance in numbers, someone make an action thread for us to see, use the Shimek arrangement method (legitimately that's what I read is off balance with todays unassisted dsb setups)

These reefers above/skilled artists know just how much to feed, how much to bioload, when to intervene


try and chart that out for res publica in a work thread. *everything will look awesome for the first year, then after that...variation in outcome that will send many of the participants right back into deep cleaning. people want reefs that aren't invaded. There will always be pros that have no trouble and make it look easy


what works in pattern for the other 99%? show dont tell.

 

[canadianeh]

I let the sand tumble in the siphon tube every weekly WC

 

[SHNICI]

Gosh I "LOVATE" sand in my reef tank!

I'm looking for better more efficient ways to vacuum a sand bed! I would love to hear what works best for you and hopefully learn something new!

So for me I have been thinking about a new way. I have an 8ft by 3ft tank and there is a lot of sand bed. The smaller hoses don't do the trick because they don't cover as much ground, get stopped up easily and the larger hoses make the opening hard to hold open plus they pick up too much sand etc.

In the past I have suctioned the top layer of sand out and into a bucket that sits in a mop sink. This allows me to clean the sand if I want to and keeps it out of the drain too! HA! I want to use a bigger hose this time but for the reasons I mentioned I am thinking of adding some type of vacuum attachment that will insert into one end of the vinyl hose and hold it open. It will also make it easier to direct where I want to clean!

1. What do you guys think and what are the best ways you have found to vacuum your sand bed?

2. Do you like to siphon off the top layer of your sand from time to time?

image via Reef Dudes video here

@revhtree I see what you mean, I see your point, but the question is (my personally and probably some other people):

1. do you have dsb or no ?
2. do you want to go with that routine or no ?
3. really what do you prefer to do ?
4. what's the purpose for of the sand in your system ?
5. what do you have at the bottom (like a moving animals, not corals) ?

probably after that you can get the best answers Rev. Sorry, I know you are with much more experience than me and many others, but for about year and many foolish things I done in my system, i never got a single problem with the SB w/o vacuuming it at all, and when I construct the bottom (which take over a week to done it properly I think) I was following and using combined way by few reefers who actually have it for ages (some of them since the 90') even some of them don't use and sump or skimmer, and they still have excellent thriving systems.
Saying all that, don't think I'm lazy and don't want to do routine jobs like most of the reefers, I just want (which I think I'm achieving) to have system which can and will work with minimum disturbance and every single life in to be happy on it own.
Please, if you can answer me the questions I really want to get your point of view

I'm asking and everyone who prefer to vacuum the SB (if use and what if it's DSB)

 

[SHNICI]

Regarding nuke vs not nuke:


again, without a massive work thread its all conjecture.


Pauls tank wont be nuked by digging into his sand, its RUGF aerated and already clean intermittently anyway.


So does that apply to say 200 reefs that may want help designing sandbeds? try it in an actual work thread, see if any get nuked.

try and move tanks home to home without nuking, leaving all sandbeds in place and not cleaned.

try and do tank upgrades in the same home without loss, show the work threads, use plural not singular examples to make headway in sandbed science.
Bob Ross painted well even with a broken stick we need something that equalizes outcomes across variations home to home. we have one way at least that does that (cleaning)


Work threads allow for this: "it didnt work"

that can never, ever happen in someone's home tank we will always get positive reports. 1 vs 200, try it.



I fully believe the two tanks above won't be nuked by access.

I also fully believe that standard cannot be met in a work thread due to unstated variations home to home and simple noncompliance in numbers, someone make an action thread for us to see, use the Shimek arrangement method (legitimately that's what I read is off balance with todays unassisted dsb setups)

These reefers above/skilled artists know just how much to feed, how much to bioload, when to intervene


try and chart that out for res publica in a work thread. *everything will look awesome for the first year, then after that...variation in outcome that will send many of the participants right back into deep cleaning. people want reefs that aren't invaded. There will always be pros that have no trouble and make it look easy


what works in pattern for the other 99%? show dont tell.

Hi @brandon429 I can't each of your points (my bloody broken english can't get every single point), I can't reach your build thread to see/read what you do how you do it, and what look your system like. So saing all that, can you let me know 2 things:

1. What do you use (bear bottom, sand just to cover the bottom or DSB)?
2. do you do vacuuming or no, and why ?

Thank you for your answers and: Kind Regards

 

[NeonRabbit221B]

Hi @brandon429 I can't each of your points (my bloody broken english can't get every single point), I can't reach your build thread to see/read what you do how you do it, and what look your system like. So saing all that, can you let me know 2 things:

1. What do you use (bear bottom, sand just to cover the bottom or DSB)?
2. do you do vacuuming or no, and why ?

Thank you for your answers and: Kind Regards

Brandon has been preaching the benefits of "rip cleans" in which you remove the fish/corals/rocks, rinse the sand in a bucket and then reacclimate everything. It eliminates detritus, pockets or rotting organics and algae while not impacting the bacterial populations involved in the nitrogen cycle.

 

[brandon429]

my own reef is a little tiny pico reef it doesnt count much towards what typical reef tanks do, but it does mini-model actual reef tank aging very quickly and from that its easy to upscale timeframes expected for larger tanks that are using typical methods of add sand, add rocks on top, begin reefing, try some things after the fact to help out with sand.

for what is working best in public reef tanks, i'd offer this list:

Official Sand Rinse and Tank Transfer thread

I am fairly worried about moving my freshwater setup as it is fairly overstocked (reduces aggression as no one fish gets singled out). I did fail to think about the toxicity of nitrite on top of ammonia toxicity... Here is my plan for the cichlid tank. I have gradually reduced my pH from 8.2 to...

www.reef2reef.com

not preaching anything. I found a pattern that makes people happy regarding sandbeds, we use that. It works for the masses

that thread will go on to a hundred pages and the outcomes will still be very, very tight with low divergence. but, we waste lots of water rinsing and its work-heavy, exclusive to small to medium sized reefs, merely meets a demand for a portion of the hobby

it's my opinion that in those post patterns we made the initial discovery that removing surface area surrounding live rocks does not have to be done in sections, because live rocks don't take on bacterial mass once occupied by sand (or any other surface area, nine extra canister filters would be the same effect)

the whole hobby says they do, but they dont. When we remove extra surface area and do whatever we want to it, the bac on the rocks remain just the same.

 

[Viking_Reefing]

I recently started using one of these things stuffed full of filter floss to clean my sand bed:

It’s basically a small canister filter that hooks to the side of your tank and filters out the gunk before returning the water to the tank.
I don’t do manual water changes since I have a AWC system set up and my sump is in another room so just running the water through a filter sock and down to the sump isn’t an option for me.

 

[steveb]

Does anyone know where Reef Dudes got that large vacuum like tube from?

It looks like acrylic or clear pvc tubing (in tank) joined to a reducing fitting using a flex pipe coupling.

example: (they make different sizes)

https://www.lowes.com/pd/EASTMAN-3-Pack-6-in-Flex-pipe-coupling/1002951670