Official Sand Rinse and Tank Transfer thread
- Thread starter brandon429
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OP
OP
LJL my gosh, you rip cleaned a 200+ gallon setup ?? So much for only nanos wow that is indeed surgical resolve and detailing you’ve shown thank you so much for posting your tough tough job
we gotta get UV on that bad boy to help cheat keep it clean! The rip might keep it clean agreed, but what we do is cyclic in reefing— we clean and then fill interstices right back up with waste...circular cyclic action and UV can help burn off capitalizers when the detritus builds back up slowly. Your tanks nitrate and phosphates are now reset to balanced levels not emanating from waste pent up in every pore, and your ORP will be better now than ever before owing to the removed organics, high surface area and strong flow/clean surfaces
we gotta get UV on that bad boy to help cheat keep it clean! The rip might keep it clean agreed, but what we do is cyclic in reefing— we clean and then fill interstices right back up with waste...circular cyclic action and UV can help burn off capitalizers when the detritus builds back up slowly. Your tanks nitrate and phosphates are now reset to balanced levels not emanating from waste pent up in every pore, and your ORP will be better now than ever before owing to the removed organics, high surface area and strong flow/clean surfaces
@brandon429
I just started a 120g with dryrock that cooked for a few months in a tub. I never changed the water in there and nitrate only got up to about 40ppm.
Started tank for a while barebottom but I wanted sand. I had no real diatom issue, only like a day. I have coralline growing since I was able to seed well from another tank but I was getting black mat Cyano on my rocks. I added 80lbs of Fiji pink live sand without rinsing. Half of my tank has Cyano on the sand and rocks. My nutrients are not the issue as I ran it for a while with no fish and now only have a tang and wrasse. Nitrates are 10 po4 I just had to dose as it was bottoming out my Hanna ULR.
I did a peroxide test and it’s Cyano for sure. I had my other tank nutrients bottom out twice so I have fought dinos before. Three times I dosed 50ml of peroxid into tank and it knocked back the Cyano for a few days but didn’t seem to be doing as much now as I have a halide on it and it’s getting more light. I did the Dr Tims Cyano treatment of waste away and refresh but it didn’t do nearly as well as the peroxide.
When I added the wet sand it was cloudy for a few days and my skimmer pulled out all the fines. Should I try and stir the bed up and let my skimmer keep pulling stuff out? Would that help my Cyano issue?
I just started a 120g with dryrock that cooked for a few months in a tub. I never changed the water in there and nitrate only got up to about 40ppm.
Started tank for a while barebottom but I wanted sand. I had no real diatom issue, only like a day. I have coralline growing since I was able to seed well from another tank but I was getting black mat Cyano on my rocks. I added 80lbs of Fiji pink live sand without rinsing. Half of my tank has Cyano on the sand and rocks. My nutrients are not the issue as I ran it for a while with no fish and now only have a tang and wrasse. Nitrates are 10 po4 I just had to dose as it was bottoming out my Hanna ULR.
I did a peroxide test and it’s Cyano for sure. I had my other tank nutrients bottom out twice so I have fought dinos before. Three times I dosed 50ml of peroxid into tank and it knocked back the Cyano for a few days but didn’t seem to be doing as much now as I have a halide on it and it’s getting more light. I did the Dr Tims Cyano treatment of waste away and refresh but it didn’t do nearly as well as the peroxide.
When I added the wet sand it was cloudy for a few days and my skimmer pulled out all the fines. Should I try and stir the bed up and let my skimmer keep pulling stuff out? Would that help my Cyano issue?
OP
OP
I couldn't recommend that only because we'll fade into commonality if we do what the masses would do 
We try to link invasion correcting to extremely deep cleaning vs any action that stirs up waste around the tank, that can kill a small number of reefs
Thank you very much for posting for sure, we want all forms of sandbed work! If you aren't as keen on rip cleaning to fix the job a common uv sterilizer would likely work best, for that growth. You'd have to siphon it up first, add uv in the clean condition
We try to link invasion correcting to extremely deep cleaning vs any action that stirs up waste around the tank, that can kill a small number of reefs
Thank you very much for posting for sure, we want all forms of sandbed work! If you aren't as keen on rip cleaning to fix the job a common uv sterilizer would likely work best, for that growth. You'd have to siphon it up first, add uv in the clean condition
How does that sand look??!!
I couldn't recommend that only because we'll fade into commonality if we do what the masses would do
We try to link invasion correcting to extremely deep cleaning vs any action that stirs up waste around the tank, that can kill a small number of reefs
Thank you very much for posting for sure, we want all forms of sandbed work! If you aren't as keen on rip cleaning to fix the job a common uv sterilizer would likely work best, for that growth. You'd have to siphon it up first, add uv in the clean condition
So you don’t recommend stirring it up then? I have no waste in the sand as there have only been two fish in the tank for two weeks. You say I’m not keen on a ripclean which my understanding would be pull out the sand and rinse it while scrubbing the rock correct? If there is no waste in the sand how is rinsing it in the tank different than taking it out to rinse and putting it back in? Am I risking my fish by stirring up fresh sand with silt?
OP
OP
oh I see yes if its a clean start that stick stirring isn't dangerous and a nice preventative for impaction bc it keeps tiny bits stirred up as they're deposited by fish waste and tank castings, but its not lethal unless that was a years old bed getting the initial stir
lets see em pics
knowing the tank is that new, reducing your light level overall really can help, we're running lights much above whats needed in intensity for most new setups/too white and this is helping new tank uglies bigtime, the corals will still be fine under much less initial intensity.
lets see em pics
knowing the tank is that new, reducing your light level overall really can help, we're running lights much above whats needed in intensity for most new setups/too white and this is helping new tank uglies bigtime, the corals will still be fine under much less initial intensity.
It is interesting to start two tanks with dry rock and have them act completely differently. Neither one has ever had a “green phase” but I run a decent fuge so that could affect it.
OP
OP
theres not a single thing wrong with that tank, Im sad we can't put it through surgery though lol only for the sheer fun of repeats
If more dry rock starts went that smoothly and looked as well the invasion posts daily would drop by 2/3
it cannot harm a cycle to clean, so run it as you like. just know the standard for concern is about 9 more levels beyond that. feel free to lift any rock out at any time, and simply clean off with saltwater down the sink, set back.
instead of always changing water params...when the real challenge sets in
a quick siphon of sand areas, put the sand back as you remove things in cleaning
this is as the tank ages with its first animals in it, a few corals wouldn't harm right now you have the light for them and its progressing
don't react much to nitrate and po4 readings in the first six months, be physically busy vs tinkering with params and test kits busy. testing for nitrate and po4 in efforts to reduce, and thereby reduce invasion work we expect, is recipe for dinos.
if you exchange tedious chemistry for basic salinity and temp control, and move all the focus to creative export right when you need it, the system will mature perfectly.
it will be a lot of work up front, for about a year or so, because that's the price of dry live rocking.
the one thing our thread will show even in reduced cleaning, more preventative approaches is the physical work vs chemical work, see how many pages we have here not discussing a test kit, which is really just an approximation its usually no where near what a calibrated probe would read...the price for dry rocking is more work, for a while
If more dry rock starts went that smoothly and looked as well the invasion posts daily would drop by 2/3
it cannot harm a cycle to clean, so run it as you like. just know the standard for concern is about 9 more levels beyond that. feel free to lift any rock out at any time, and simply clean off with saltwater down the sink, set back.
instead of always changing water params...when the real challenge sets in
a quick siphon of sand areas, put the sand back as you remove things in cleaning
this is as the tank ages with its first animals in it, a few corals wouldn't harm right now you have the light for them and its progressing
don't react much to nitrate and po4 readings in the first six months, be physically busy vs tinkering with params and test kits busy. testing for nitrate and po4 in efforts to reduce, and thereby reduce invasion work we expect, is recipe for dinos.
if you exchange tedious chemistry for basic salinity and temp control, and move all the focus to creative export right when you need it, the system will mature perfectly.
it will be a lot of work up front, for about a year or so, because that's the price of dry live rocking.
the one thing our thread will show even in reduced cleaning, more preventative approaches is the physical work vs chemical work, see how many pages we have here not discussing a test kit, which is really just an approximation its usually no where near what a calibrated probe would read...the price for dry rocking is more work, for a while
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I appreciate it. I will just keep siphoning it out. It’s a bit worse than the pics so and I did do two days of peroxide dosing before the pic today. It’s interesting watching two tangs deco lope differently but my fuge light was too strong and dropped nutrients in my 29 so I have already beaten dinos twice in there this year. Would prefer not to have it in this one. I think part of my issue with this tank was putting light on it without fish. I think that caused a bacterial imbalance.
So...here’s a new one (I assume, I didn’t read all 40 pages...).
I got a killer deal on some sand. 100lbs free of caribsea argonite. Ironically I had 80lbs on order.
The catch is that it was in a freshwater tank.
I figured I was going to full cycle anyway and cleaned the sand thoroughly with hose water. It’s in the tank now for the cycle. I guess we will see what happens at the end of the day.
I got a killer deal on some sand. 100lbs free of caribsea argonite. Ironically I had 80lbs on order.
The catch is that it was in a freshwater tank.
I figured I was going to full cycle anyway and cleaned the sand thoroughly with hose water. It’s in the tank now for the cycle. I guess we will see what happens at the end of the day.
|sCRIBe|
Active Member
I’ve been battling cyano on my sand bed for 9 months. It happening after I decided to vacuum the sand and the cyano is only growing on the parts that I vacuumed. Which method of sand cleaning would I use to fix this problem?
When you disturb the biology in the tank sometimes this results in blooms from imbalance. I would just leave it alone. Dose some beneficial bacteria to get the tank back on track.
OP
OP
Cleaning the tank doesn’t disturb anything negatively, it gets the after pics we’ve been collecting for years
Pick any job link/ check it out see if you like the outcome.
in any tank small enough to directly manage, we can make the reef run right by simple cleaning and no bad outcomes logged
it’s not like we have to take the tank apart for expected spots of uglies/ cyano
feel free to try any incremental approach. When you are ready to step up the cleaning as we show then you can see what the outcome will be as well. Also consider how cleaning a 9mo sandbed will remove waste stores that in the future feed gha invasions...cleaning now though the patches are small can also be about future detritus mitigation and thinking about future invasions that are much more challenging.
we show that you can’t leave a reef untouched and enjoy it, we have to actively garden it to keep the species we want in favor
Pick any job link/ check it out see if you like the outcome.
in any tank small enough to directly manage, we can make the reef run right by simple cleaning and no bad outcomes logged
it’s not like we have to take the tank apart for expected spots of uglies/ cyano
feel free to try any incremental approach. When you are ready to step up the cleaning as we show then you can see what the outcome will be as well. Also consider how cleaning a 9mo sandbed will remove waste stores that in the future feed gha invasions...cleaning now though the patches are small can also be about future detritus mitigation and thinking about future invasions that are much more challenging.
we show that you can’t leave a reef untouched and enjoy it, we have to actively garden it to keep the species we want in favor
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It’s negative just monitor your Alk. Simply blowing off your rocks disturbs the tank enough to slow Alk consumption.
How negative depends on the tank and what’s going on in the tank. It depends on the age and maturity of the tank and if you have live sand-bed or dead. Depends on grain size and your bacterial population and diversity.
The longer I keep reefs the more I understand just how important stability actually is for coral growth. IMO, you should never change or constantly tinker with a running system other than doing normal maintenance. You can, but the guy who’s not will outgrow you.
How negative depends on the tank and what’s going on in the tank. It depends on the age and maturity of the tank and if you have live sand-bed or dead. Depends on grain size and your bacterial population and diversity.
The longer I keep reefs the more I understand just how important stability actually is for coral growth. IMO, you should never change or constantly tinker with a running system other than doing normal maintenance. You can, but the guy who’s not will outgrow you.
OP
OP
We are able to show here that active intervention beats hands off reefing, in systems where accessibility isn’t restricted. a huge reef has no option but to be hands off
we make new rules for smaller reefs, breaking away from larger tank procedures
The right way is to reef without intervention as best you can, and then do not miss the opportunity to intervene when your system prompts, or the invasion is likely to take over.
the masses will accept the invasion to any degree as normal, as long as it wants to run, we don’t here. It’s why for thirty pages we have fixes vs continued invasion-we stand out from tolerance threads by not tolerating invasions, even though they’re expected in new tanks.
regarding hands off vs hands on active reefing, we should all read here below to see what’s causing invasions between the two modes: hands off vs hands on
see how following the typical rules gets everyone invaded to the point they need help to keep their investment below? We can be different.
What are the masses advising below to fix allowed invasions? They’re offering retail or hands off fixes
More fluconazole doses, more chemi clean. more retail purchases that kill the mass in the system, then they’ll eventually find our thread here to clean out the accumulated waste and fix their cyano.
www.reef2reef.com
following the masses gets people a post there. See how their invasions persist daily, new entrants, and yet we tell new keepers to sit back as the investment gets taken over for months
we make new rules for smaller reefs, breaking away from larger tank procedures
The right way is to reef without intervention as best you can, and then do not miss the opportunity to intervene when your system prompts, or the invasion is likely to take over.
the masses will accept the invasion to any degree as normal, as long as it wants to run, we don’t here. It’s why for thirty pages we have fixes vs continued invasion-we stand out from tolerance threads by not tolerating invasions, even though they’re expected in new tanks.
regarding hands off vs hands on active reefing, we should all read here below to see what’s causing invasions between the two modes: hands off vs hands on
see how following the typical rules gets everyone invaded to the point they need help to keep their investment below? We can be different.
What are the masses advising below to fix allowed invasions? They’re offering retail or hands off fixes
More fluconazole doses, more chemi clean. more retail purchases that kill the mass in the system, then they’ll eventually find our thread here to clean out the accumulated waste and fix their cyano.
Nuisance Algae (including bacteria)
Need help with nuisance algae, cyanobacteria, or dinoflagellates? Maybe you just need an ID of what you have in your tank? This is the section for you.
www.reef2reef.com
following the masses gets people a post there. See how their invasions persist daily, new entrants, and yet we tell new keepers to sit back as the investment gets taken over for months
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OP
OP
considering that passivity seen above, see this opposite set of moves:
www.reef2reef.com
same forum, different set of rules, way different outcome. Two hours to fix both tanks, didn’t hesitate and hope...took the decisive action.
Or, they could buy dosers, test kits, wait, hope, make excuses to all viewers that the original tank shots were how it was supposed to be, and not enjoy the system day by day.
now they enjoy
What works for the masses isn’t being hands off, though, or the nuisance algae forum wouldn’t be so busy needing help and we would see clear activity of hands off methods earning clean after pics. We keep our front lawns free of weeds (ideally) vs sit back
For a nano reef, the method shown here right above can’t be beat. You don’t have to go all surgical for some new tank cyano, just siphon it up easily.
but one day the tank will prompt you for an intervention, while the masses advise further wait, we want you to have clear examples of what decisive action looks like
this thread is people using cleaning and accurate microbiology to set care boundaries
every other thread on the web is specifically not about deep cleaning, that’s disruptive, and is fully about buying something and waiting to see if that works. Instead of just making the thread a strict collection of rip cleans, we would accept any links showing patterned hands off works earning clean after pics.
we can accept work threads and links that allow the reader to scan for pages and discern their own patterns, and it ideally will be a thread written by the advocate. If we assemble invasion fixes here that are not based in deep cleaning or alternate work threads given significant effort, we lose our individuality and patterning.
sand rinse thread: does not hesitate. can see works from others, to know how any given job pans out, before it begins. Debating pattern is much harder than debating a claim. Not any param measures logged, because we wouldn’t believe them as accurate even if stated. You have the ability to clean your system based on the logged works from others
every other thread: you may not clean, it’s bad and causes imbalance. you will wait until it naturally resolves, no matter how long that may be, retail additives are ok to try. Sixty different options are posted on best fixes, no work threads linked. You must test and respond to every param with precision, must wait for natural resolution.
Algae Identification
Any opinions on what type of algae this is growing on my rocks and sand bed?
www.reef2reef.com
same forum, different set of rules, way different outcome. Two hours to fix both tanks, didn’t hesitate and hope...took the decisive action.
Or, they could buy dosers, test kits, wait, hope, make excuses to all viewers that the original tank shots were how it was supposed to be, and not enjoy the system day by day.
now they enjoy
What works for the masses isn’t being hands off, though, or the nuisance algae forum wouldn’t be so busy needing help and we would see clear activity of hands off methods earning clean after pics. We keep our front lawns free of weeds (ideally) vs sit back
For a nano reef, the method shown here right above can’t be beat. You don’t have to go all surgical for some new tank cyano, just siphon it up easily.
but one day the tank will prompt you for an intervention, while the masses advise further wait, we want you to have clear examples of what decisive action looks like
this thread is people using cleaning and accurate microbiology to set care boundaries
every other thread on the web is specifically not about deep cleaning, that’s disruptive, and is fully about buying something and waiting to see if that works. Instead of just making the thread a strict collection of rip cleans, we would accept any links showing patterned hands off works earning clean after pics.
we can accept work threads and links that allow the reader to scan for pages and discern their own patterns, and it ideally will be a thread written by the advocate. If we assemble invasion fixes here that are not based in deep cleaning or alternate work threads given significant effort, we lose our individuality and patterning.
sand rinse thread: does not hesitate. can see works from others, to know how any given job pans out, before it begins. Debating pattern is much harder than debating a claim. Not any param measures logged, because we wouldn’t believe them as accurate even if stated. You have the ability to clean your system based on the logged works from others
every other thread: you may not clean, it’s bad and causes imbalance. you will wait until it naturally resolves, no matter how long that may be, retail additives are ok to try. Sixty different options are posted on best fixes, no work threads linked. You must test and respond to every param with precision, must wait for natural resolution.
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OP
OP
Deep cleaning a nano tank
Okay so I’ve been having a bad battle with weird parametersino’s and now cyano and have been looking at doing a deep clean on the tank. But I have a few questions. Tank is nuvo20 with 2 ai primes and 2 jebao sow4. 1yr old didn’t have issues until about the 8month mark and can’t get it under...
www.reef2reef.com
Nick has simply done a fine job here, dinos battle.
sandbed removed fully, will tune up the reef, then add a new rinsed bed back later.
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