Cleaning The Sand Bed

[krzyphsygy]

I really want to vacuum my sand bed and I know many reefers do it but how? How can you vacuum it with out sucking out the sand?
The sand I have is the Special Sea Floor Grade. Its pretty large grains, as close to crushed coral as sand can get but def NOT crushed coral.

Does anyone do this?

 

[hollister]

I use a hang on back bio filter with 2 filter pads. I rinse them off before i do this and replace after im dont . Also do this right before you do a water change.

Use your hand or a Powerheads and blow off areas then the filter and water change will remove all this debris. Just do sections each time .

But if you keep good feeding habits and good water flow with goood CUC there should not be that much debris.
God. I hope that helped....

 

[hollister]

Could have played two rounds of world of tanks during that time. ))

 

[wnehez]

I tried doing that when I first started. Thought ehh whats the worst that could happen. Woke up at 3am and found half my live stock dead. Had to do emergency water changes which sucked at the time cuz my well water is no good so I had to go to my buddies house with 5 gallon buckets and get water then transport them back and mix the salt and the whole experience was horrible. Will never touch my sand again. Too risky. I would say jus get some more crabs or cuc and let them do their thing.

 

[Nano sapiens]

I really want to vacuum my sand bed and I know many reefers do it but how? How can you vacuum it with out sucking out the sand?
The sand I have is the Special Sea Floor Grade. Its pretty large grains, as close to crushed coral as sand can get but def NOT crushed coral.

Does anyone do this?

Yes, every week using a 'Gravel Vac' for my shallow 1" sand bed (not recommended for a deep sand bed). Removal of detritus is one of the best things you can do for the long-term health of the tank IMO.

If you are just starting to clean your SB then start with only a SMALL section each water change (~1/10). If you disturb too much at once you can get a nasty algae bloom, or at worst, die off and a crash.

 

[crsswift70]

Yes, every week using a 'Gravel Vac' for my shallow 1" sand bed (not recommended for a deep sand bed). Removal of detritus is one of the best things you can do for the long-term health of the tank IMO.

If you are just starting to clean your SB then start with only a SMALL section each water change (~1/10). If you disturb too much at once you can get a nasty algae bloom, or at worst, die off and a crash.

I second this. After having just broken down my DT and discovering some really nasty sand, my new build will have a shallow bed and it will get vacuumed each water change, section by section. You can get a gravel filter pretty much anywhere or DIY one with a slender long plastic bottle and some tubing. The longer the better as it allows the sand time to roll and fall back down. Same warning though, if it is a deep bed, you don't want to disturb the deeper layers as they can release some nasty stuff in to the water and compromise the anaerobic areas.

 

[jeffeg]

I just suck out the small trouble spots and replace it with new rinsed sand.

 

[Healingwaters]

I also have a shallow sand bed. I use one had to guid the siphon only slimming the top layer. I use the other to pinch the hose so as to choke flow going through the line. This way if I get to much sand in the tube part it just drops the sand down. Sand is usually heavier than what I am trying to suck out. I guess that depends on you sand too.

 

[Nano sapiens]

You can get a gravel filter pretty much anywhere or DIY one with a slender long plastic bottle and some tubing areas.

I use an all plastic valve (HomeDepot) spliced into a commercial Gravel Vac which you can see in this pic. This allows for very fine control so that a minimum (if any) sand is removed from the tank.

 

[billdogg]

I have used a python siphon for every water change i have ever done over the last 25+ years. In the DT with a SSB, I do pretty much the whole thing every time. For the DSB in my refugium (and it's a 120g fuge) with 6" DSB, I hit about 1/4 of the area each time just to help keep theose "bad pockets" from forming.

 

[Healingwaters]

Haha at nano sapiens u have a ball valve where I use my finger. I tell some people just gots more smarts than others