6 year old DSB in an SPS tank you wont believe your eyes
- Thread starter trueblackpercula
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trueblackpercula
New member
I sure did have my attention as well once I got started lol I will continue to clean it and possably add some new sand as well once thing stabilize Maybe 50 pounds over a few weeks.
I still want to give it the possable cleaning I can over the next few weeks first.
I will upmost updates soon for all to see.
trueblackpercula
New member
trueblackpercula
New member
I think it's pretty clear you don't want to tear down the tank and start over Michael, i wouldn't want to either. You can change out a significant amount of your DSB to freshen things up with very little filth or toxins being released by doing it the same way i did.
All you do is make yourself a cookie cutter for the sand bed. I used 4" dia acrylic tube with 1/8" thick walls. I cut a length 7" long so it was a couple of inches taller than the 5" DSB. Just push it into the DSB until it bottoms out and then use your siphon hose to remove everything within the walls of your cutter. You then just pour new sand back in the hole and pull out the sand cutter. Any kitchen container be it square or round etc will work after you cut the bottom off to make a hollow tube like cutter as long as it's high enough to extend a few inches above your existing DSB depth. The thinner but still rigid the walls of your cutter the easier it is to push through the sand so when your wife goes shopping make your move................
Turning the lights out on your pale acros won't starve them to death over 3-4 days mate, it would take a lot longer than that and anyway there's food in your water that you don't even know about that the polyps can still consume.
You can try swapping out as much of the DSB as you want over time and use your siphon on the spots that are too difficult to reach in a safe manner. Totally up to you which way you go but replacing the sand as i described is just as quick as slowly siphoning the sand as you've been doing and less likely to release toxins than your current method tbh. The bonus is you are sanitizing the area you're working on completely rather than sucking out a limited amount of filth with lots also going into the water. Do a couple of spots each week with your water change and the critters will quickly populate the new areas.
Let us know how you go with the cleanup mate and keep positive, things will only get better once you get on top of this nutrient issue :beer:
Thank you so much Biggles all your help and advice is greatly appreciated. I can't wait to some day post something positive and not always glom and dom
Keep it clean. Replace what comes out when you clean it - if you are aggressive enough with the cleaning, you will lost some sand. 
You will be cool.
If you clean the stuff that you can reach, then a cuke can/will concentrate around the rocks and in the back... they will get to what you cannot get to. I am talking about like 1 cuke, not 4 or 5 since you will have clean sand in the parts of the tank that you can reach. A messy tank can handle multiple cukes, but hopefully yours won't be able to.
Replacing sand is easy too. You could do both, if you wanted. I just wash a bag of the "wet" sand and pour it down a 2" PCV tube with the pumps off. Minimal dust.
You will be cool.If you clean the stuff that you can reach, then a cuke can/will concentrate around the rocks and in the back... they will get to what you cannot get to. I am talking about like 1 cuke, not 4 or 5 since you will have clean sand in the parts of the tank that you can reach. A messy tank can handle multiple cukes, but hopefully yours won't be able to.
Replacing sand is easy too. You could do both, if you wanted. I just wash a bag of the "wet" sand and pour it down a 2" PCV tube with the pumps off. Minimal dust.
trueblackpercula
New member
Sure now I learn this years after adding the sand lol. But it's to late to cry now and I hope the cleaning helps or I will have no choice but to break down the tank and start over.
I am sure in time I will get there, I should have designed the tank a little differently but there is always time to change it. Besides I believe in DSB and they do work if maintained, but tha was my mistake not maintaining it.
I changed out 2 gallons last night again and tried to get to some of the more challenging areas and the detritus build up was insane. This really needs to be done slowly or things could go bad fast. This morning my Sps looked a lot better with all the new cleaning that I have done. To date I have syphioned out 12 gallons of water with the sand bed cleaner with no ill affects.
Let's keep our fingers crossed as this weekend I will try and do 10 more gallons.
Have a merry Christmas everyone.
Lonelyreef
New member
I have I would say medium depth sandbed but one thing I noticed was algae problems and horrible color and growth. Then I had to get a melenarus wrasse out of my tank. Anyone that's ever tried to catch one off these knows you will be stirring up the sandbed. What happend in the following days was a real eye opener and taught me more than I'd ever thought I'd know. I actually had a mini cycle in my tank after stirring up the sand bed and it's only nine months old its a newer upgraded tank. That and all algae and horrible growth and colors were gone within days.
I have to say with the depth of your sandbed you will most deffinetely see a cycle and corals will take it hard. However they will come back stronger and with better color then ever. Set skimmer to wet run carbon and after you do the big stir up do as big of water change as you can handle. I did this with fantastic results good luck
I have to say with the depth of your sandbed you will most deffinetely see a cycle and corals will take it hard. However they will come back stronger and with better color then ever. Set skimmer to wet run carbon and after you do the big stir up do as big of water change as you can handle. I did this with fantastic results good luck
trueblackpercula
New member
ok everyone I promised to post some updates today so here it goes, all week i have been rushing home to make sure that my system didnt crash from all the feed back from others,not to mention some even talking about a re cycle in the tank.
So I am happy to report my tank made it through the week and my SPS look much better. So i decided to go all out today and clean areas of the sand bed that I couldn't get to the first time.
I got up early today made 10 gallons of fresh RO/DI water mixed up the salt and let it sit on the fish room. So I rolled up my sleeves and at 8:30 this morning I started to look at the rocks that had Algae and the sand be that had red Cyno bacteria on it and told myself I had enough.
I removed the top left side of the rock rock work and scrubbed the rocks with a tooth brush in salt water and then took my little invention and started to clean the sand bed. I was able to reach areas that I didn't think I could get to. Let me say that I spent a little over three hours cleaning the sand very slowly so slow in fact that I only removed five gallons of water during the process. The sand that was cleaned was in the same condition as my first video and maybe even a little worse. I also made another pass in the sand that i cleaned last weekend and to my surprise it was very clean so I guess it helped.
What I did after cleaning and cleaning I changed out the Rowaphos that i put in last week and added a Chemi pure bag to polish the water and help with removal of anything bad that may have been released in the water column.
I turned up the skimmer to skim a little more wet than normal and also added a filter sock to catch any free floating detritus to prevent it from building up in the sump area. I will remove the filter sock tomorrow clean it out and put it back on the shelf for next weekends cleaning again. I was going to do another five gallons tomorrow but felt is am getting to close to disaster with all the removing of the detritus and also releasing P04/ and what ever that dreadful smelly stuff is into the water column.
Observation: My SPS look really good most have Full PE and actually look pretty dame good. The couple that lost color or were STN'ing have stopped and the colors are now stable. I do not want to give the false impression to anyone that my tank has completely done 180 turn around in a week, but its getting really close to stabilization.
As soon as I can get some good Pictures of the sand bed and the Sps I will post them. So anyone willing to take on this endeavor make sure you have a few things on hand.
1) fresh make up water
2) salt mix
3) GFO/ Carbon
4) plenty of time and patience
As stated above by me that I Don't know if I am out of the woods with a system crash. But my system is looking really nice I am very pleased with not only the results the water looks crystal clear.
Thanks everyone and more updates to follow.
Michael
Here is my Build thread if anyone is interested on how I started this project in 2006 boy have I changed not only in positions but technology LOl
http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=746233&highlight=cube
So I am happy to report my tank made it through the week and my SPS look much better. So i decided to go all out today and clean areas of the sand bed that I couldn't get to the first time.
I got up early today made 10 gallons of fresh RO/DI water mixed up the salt and let it sit on the fish room. So I rolled up my sleeves and at 8:30 this morning I started to look at the rocks that had Algae and the sand be that had red Cyno bacteria on it and told myself I had enough.
I removed the top left side of the rock rock work and scrubbed the rocks with a tooth brush in salt water and then took my little invention and started to clean the sand bed. I was able to reach areas that I didn't think I could get to. Let me say that I spent a little over three hours cleaning the sand very slowly so slow in fact that I only removed five gallons of water during the process. The sand that was cleaned was in the same condition as my first video and maybe even a little worse. I also made another pass in the sand that i cleaned last weekend and to my surprise it was very clean so I guess it helped.
What I did after cleaning and cleaning I changed out the Rowaphos that i put in last week and added a Chemi pure bag to polish the water and help with removal of anything bad that may have been released in the water column.
I turned up the skimmer to skim a little more wet than normal and also added a filter sock to catch any free floating detritus to prevent it from building up in the sump area. I will remove the filter sock tomorrow clean it out and put it back on the shelf for next weekends cleaning again. I was going to do another five gallons tomorrow but felt is am getting to close to disaster with all the removing of the detritus and also releasing P04/ and what ever that dreadful smelly stuff is into the water column.
Observation: My SPS look really good most have Full PE and actually look pretty dame good. The couple that lost color or were STN'ing have stopped and the colors are now stable. I do not want to give the false impression to anyone that my tank has completely done 180 turn around in a week, but its getting really close to stabilization.
As soon as I can get some good Pictures of the sand bed and the Sps I will post them. So anyone willing to take on this endeavor make sure you have a few things on hand.
1) fresh make up water
2) salt mix
3) GFO/ Carbon
4) plenty of time and patience
As stated above by me that I Don't know if I am out of the woods with a system crash. But my system is looking really nice I am very pleased with not only the results the water looks crystal clear.
Thanks everyone and more updates to follow.
Michael
Here is my Build thread if anyone is interested on how I started this project in 2006 boy have I changed not only in positions but technology LOl
http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=746233&highlight=cube
biggles
Premium Member
Thanks for going into so much detail on how you're tackling the cleanup process michael, i'm sure there are lots of other reefers out there contemplating similar action and this will give them the confidence to get the job done without fear of a 'system crash'. The only way you'll crash your system is by doing things in a rash and ill planned manner with no understanding of the processes involved that you may be disrupting during the sand cleaning - you're approach is the same way i'd tackle it if i didn't want to actually replace the sand mate.
The day after i stir my sand bed to remove as much accumulated filth as possible i always think the acros look particularly bright and vibrant, not sure if they are or if it's just me tbh but i'm not at all surprised to hear that you think you're already seeing positive results mate.
I think the once a week cleaning is as fast as i'd push things, the job will be done before you know it and there's no need to rush it and risk screwing up :debi:
I didn't even know you had a journal from the systems early days, are you going to use that again because i need a place to annoy you with my ramblings and you need to get a bloody journal happening again so we can follow the reefs progress with your newer methods of coral husbandry - no rush to let us know, you have 24 hours.............. :fun2:
The day after i stir my sand bed to remove as much accumulated filth as possible i always think the acros look particularly bright and vibrant, not sure if they are or if it's just me tbh but i'm not at all surprised to hear that you think you're already seeing positive results mate.
I think the once a week cleaning is as fast as i'd push things, the job will be done before you know it and there's no need to rush it and risk screwing up :debi:
I didn't even know you had a journal from the systems early days, are you going to use that again because i need a place to annoy you with my ramblings and you need to get a bloody journal happening again so we can follow the reefs progress with your newer methods of coral husbandry - no rush to let us know, you have 24 hours.............. :fun2:
Lonelyreef
New member
The only way to have sand is if u clean it regularly
rogerwilco357
Active member
does any of the fallout get trapped in the live rock ? And how old is the live rock? Mine seems to be leaching po4 into my system its the only item left and my sand bed is minimal now and new or at least 2 years old lol..
S2minute
New member
...Thanks. I think what really makes a difference is that i have a 36" 200 micron sock that slips right over the return to the sump,(a 150 gal rubbermaid). The return pump to the DT has Ts. One of them routes to the 150 cryptic and has a ball valve to regulate the flow. SO, whatever does float in is less than 200 microns unless i remove the sock when i feed the DT, ( i let the entire system get some of the feeding), before i replace the sock. The only real accumulation of Detritus comes from the LR in the cryptic like i said before. Remember the sand i use is the SD sand from HD. It's just Silica sand and the correct grain size for a properly functioning DSB.
Froggy
Reef "Hobbyist"...right!?
Michael,
I have been following along with this thread and am very glad the tank is responding well to your cleaning. Thanks for taking the time to document your methods and results. It is threads like this, with the input from diverse experienced hobbyists, that help reef keeping worldwide. It is all of our hopes to provide the best environment for our tanks residents as well as have the satisfaction and greatest enjoyment possible from our reefs.
I look forward to the time when you can exhale and smile at the results your patience and effort has provided!
Joe
I have been following along with this thread and am very glad the tank is responding well to your cleaning. Thanks for taking the time to document your methods and results. It is threads like this, with the input from diverse experienced hobbyists, that help reef keeping worldwide. It is all of our hopes to provide the best environment for our tanks residents as well as have the satisfaction and greatest enjoyment possible from our reefs.
I look forward to the time when you can exhale and smile at the results your patience and effort has provided!
Joe
Hello,
Here is a part of my aquarium that is 30 years old, without any great changes during the years.
In the beginning there were no SPS or LPS in.
With a DBS is the sump. I think I must have a lot of detritus that is made during all this years.
I don't clear it nearly.
The aquarium is now full of SPS-corals and LPS for more than 15 years and all goes well till now.
No sign of the old aquarium syndrom I think.
Here is a part of my aquarium that is 30 years old, without any great changes during the years.
In the beginning there were no SPS or LPS in.
With a DBS is the sump. I think I must have a lot of detritus that is made during all this years.
I don't clear it nearly.
The aquarium is now full of SPS-corals and LPS for more than 15 years and all goes well till now.
No sign of the old aquarium syndrom I think.
Attachments
CUNAReefer
New member
Hi Vadyre,
First, VERY nice tank. Your aquascaping and corals are beautiful. Second, can you tell us if the DSB in your sump has a light source?
Warmest Regards,
James
trueblackpercula
New member
Holy crap that's insane. I would love to see more pictures of the sump area and the sand, do you think you could post some pictures ?
There is not much to see in my sump. It is difficult to make a picture.
The space in the sump with the DSB is 60x39 cm.
The sand (broken coral), is 12 cm thick and is there for about 15 years.
My sump is totaly covered with isolation stuff.
