Deep sand bed maintenance

michaelr7170

New member
Hello,

I've been reading a lot of conflicting information regarding maintenance of a DSB... I'm just in my first week of cycling my 90 gallon.. I have about 100 lbs of live sand (Fiji pink caribsea) giving me about 4 inches depth. When I do my water changes and cleaning, what should I do about he sand? Stir? Gravel vac? Leave it alone due to the filter zones? Also, does it matter about adding sand shifting livestock to a tank with a dsb?

Thanks,
Mike
 
I have deep sand in my display also. I have quite a few (50+) nassarius snails and hermits.

I leave my sand alone and do not purposely touch it. If you stir it too much the items starting to grow in it might get disturbed. If you start to see items growing against the rock, imagine what is growing where you can not see.

A live sandbed will help with eating anything that happens to land there.

Any sandsifting stock might disturb and take over the properties of a true DSB inhabitants.
 
I have a 5-7 inch sand bed in majority of my tank. I use snails and a couple sand sifting star fish. If you disrupt the sand you can release cyno spores and other things causing algae blooms. IMO put some sand sifting critters in there then leave it alone. Good luck
 
I ran a 6" -7" DSB for over 18 years and I would suggest you use this to activate, and this to help keep it healthy, and recharge in another year. I would not use any type of sand sifting animals that will prey on the infauna, i.e. certain gobies, starfish, etc. Instead I would use a fighting conch, some Nassarius Vibrex, and Cerith snails to keep the upper layer loosened.
 
I ran a 6" -7" DSB for over 18 years and I would suggest you use this to activate, and this to help keep it healthy, and recharge in another year. I would not use any type of sand sifting animals that will prey on the infauna, i.e. certain gobies, starfish, etc. Instead I would use a fighting conch, some Nassarius Vibrex, and Cerith snails to keep the upper layer loosened.

Thank you for the links. I am curious about activating the sand however, is that necessary seeing I purchased live sand with active bacteria? Also, I seem to have trouble finding fighting conches in Canada, is it possible they can be called something else also?
 
Thank you for the links. I am curious about activating the sand however, is that necessary seeing I purchased live sand with active bacteria? Also, I seem to have trouble finding fighting conches in Canada, is it possible they can be called something else also?

Although there may be some level of bacteria in the "live" sand, I think it's more wet than live, and typically about 30% more expensive than the dry version. If you read the description of the IPSF's activator, you'll see its a lot more than just some nitrifying bacteria.
I've never heard them referred to as anything other than fighting conchs, with the exception of the word Florida sometimes prefacing the name. Be careful here, as not all conchs are created equal, and some may even sell you whelks as conchs, which you don't want in your system.
 
Although there may be some level of bacteria in the "live" sand, I think it's more wet than live, and typically about 30% more expensive than the dry version. If you read the description of the IPSF's activator, you'll see its a lot more than just some nitrifying bacteria.
I've never heard them referred to as anything other than fighting conchs, with the exception of the word Florida sometimes prefacing the name. Be careful here, as not all conchs are created equal, and some may even sell you whelks as conchs, which you don't want in your system.

Ok thank you again for the information.. Being new to the hobby, I'm strongly considering removing some sand and just keeping a shallow <2" bed.
 
As a personal user of the IPSF live sand and live worm method...

Yeah it was a good idea!
 
What about "tank crashing" that I've been reading about from DSB's? Some say it's BS and others disagree.. Do you change out your DSB's after so long?
 
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