Beginner Mistake

ReeferNoob4ever

ReeferNoob4ever

New member
I filled my tank with 20lbs dry aragonite. I didn't think the sand bed issue much because last time I had an aquarium 10 yrs ago I used crushed coral :debi: Needless to say, my nitrates were never below 20ppm.

This time around I didn't consider bare bottom vs DSB. I just knew sand vs crushed coral. After pushing in 30lbs of live rock, I now have areas of 3" deep sand. I don't really want to disturb the sand. My plan is to keep my scavengers full all the time and hope the nitrates stay down. I do plan on turkey basting around/in the rocksame to release debris into the water. I will target the larger things with a siphon.

Is this even worth risking or should I just clean the sand like I do my cichlid tank?

I kinda wish I would have gone bare bottom and put gsp on it. :thumbsup:
 
I have 4 tanks, 3 with fine sand and 1 that's bare bottom. I never vacuum the sand and I'm just about ready to add sand to the bare bottom frag tank as it always gets 'dirty' looking in just a couple of weeks.
 
I don't get it.. Now beginners think they can't even use sand?
Or because its 3" deep in some areas? so what..

And the only thing that goes below the top surface of sand in my tanks is sand sifting/living creatures.. I will never clean sand in a tank.. Maybe siphon stuff floating on the surface but thats it..
 
ReeferNoob4ever said:
I wasnt planning on vacuuming it. Just wanted to make sure I didn't make a huge error.

Thanks!
Click to expand...

You did good asking the question.

It's WAY better to learn by asking questions here than at most LFS or by just making a mistake in the tank because you didn't ask. Been there, done that... and so have all the others that answer questions here!
 
mcgyvr said:
And the only thing that goes below the top surface of sand in my tanks is sand sifting/living creatures.. I will never clean sand in a tank.. Maybe siphon stuff floating on the surface but thats it..
Click to expand...

Just out of curiosity are you running any reactors, a refugium or perhaps an ATS on your tank? If so, you might want to take these offline for a month or so and see how clean your sand bed really is. Remove the bandages so to say. People just don't seem to realize that they can't really say that their untouched sand bed is healthy if it's never had to stand alone.
Removing all that crap that accumulates over time will definitely pay off in the long run IME.
 
EdgeN said:
Just out of curiosity are you running any reactors, a refugium or perhaps an ATS on your tank? If so, you might want to take these offline for a month or so and see how clean your sand bed really is. Remove the bandages so to say. People just don't seem to realize that they can't really say that their untouched sand bed is healthy if it's never had to stand alone.
Removing all that crap that accumulates over time will definitely pay off in the long run IME.
Click to expand...

No reactors, no fuge, no ATS, heck..no sump even, no "band-aids" at all for me..
I only run a skimmer every once and a while now that has a surface skimmer attachment solely to remove the protein slick floating on the top of the water.. Once its gone I take it off line or let it pull a cup of skimmate and then shut it down again..
 
My snails have been doing a bang up job cleaning my nasty wet live rock. My shrimp is coming out at night and picking loose stuff off the substrate. The coco worm and feather duster seem to be grabbing things out of the water. I'm going to add a brittle star and call my cleanup crew good. I saw a couple bristle worms in there and just had a copepod bloom.
 
beware... brittle stars GET BIG real quick...
I would not put one in a 20G tank..
And for sure avoid the green ones..
 
You did not make an error. Aragonite sand is great, IMO.

People forget that aragonite binds phosphate. People have written books and articles about "old tank syndrome" that try and study why older tanks all of a sudden see phosphates start to rise. The reason is that the sand a rock is no longer binding it. Please understand that it does not leech or release the phosphate, rather it stops covering up some maintenance issues that have been happening for years. This being said, I do like to start to change my sand on about year four and do about 25% a year for the next four years.
 
10 years ago when I had basically the same set up, I had a brittle for over a year and it hadn't taken over. I did see it a lot especially arms sticking out. I tend to put a good amount of rock for them to forage. However, my LFS also said that to me this time around. So I will be patient. I do know the green ones eat meat. I never fed my black one and he was good to go. I want to let the cope pods and bristle worms replicate more before I add anything else.

I was hoping not to ever have to touch the sand. Those are my pipe dreams.

Thanks everybody!
 
Fifteen years of reefing from a 40 to a 90 to a 180 and never cleaned any sand and I think it has always looked just fine.
 
Beginner Mistake

ReeferNoob4ever said:
My snails have been doing a bang up job cleaning my nasty wet live rock. My shrimp is coming out at night and picking loose stuff off the substrate. The coco worm and feather duster seem to be grabbing things out of the water. I'm going to add a brittle star and call my cleanup crew good. I saw a couple bristle worms in there and just had a copepod bloom.
Click to expand...



Be aware that the coco worm needs special supplement feeding or it will starve. It's not like you generic feather duster.

Please read below about supplement feeding for them.

http://m.liveaquaria.com/product/prod_display.cfm?c=497+504+540&pcatid=540


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