Genius idea! Does anyone else gravel vac like this?

[deputydog95]

I had been getting more aggressive about cleaning my sand bed in the past few months. It's only 2 or so inches deep but seems to get pretty nasty when I run my fingers through it... Tons of garbage coming out when I did my usual gravel vac into the water change drain 10-gallon container, but I couldn't do it very long as I'd fill up that container in 5 or so minutes.

I stumbled across this video and thought that was one hell of an idea.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7yUl5tzAzZ8

Ignore his awful hat and focus on the video lol.

You can skip to 4 mins if you want to skip the leadup commentary.

I don't use filter socks in my sump (instead I use plastic filter cups with disposable floss) so I went out and bought a couple traditional felt style medium filter socks from my LFS and gave it a go.

Amazing! I thought my sand was pretty clean up o this point... But I've done this technique 3 times now for about 15 mins each time and I still get massive piles of garbage. Even though the water is most running clear when I vac now, in lieu of that weird white garbage cloud when you vac sand that hasn't been disrupted in a while, the socks are still disgusting afterward and take quite a bit of energy to clean them.

I haven't checked nitrates and phosphates since starting this technique about a month ago (maybe this weekend), but I'm seeing an explosion in SPS coral growth since adopting this method. I've never had traditional algae problems up to this point in this tank and phosphates were usually pretty low when I did check them. Will be curious to see what my numbers are now.

I use a plastic clamp to clip the sock and the drain hose to the inside of the front wall of the sump and siphon right into that. No spills, no mess.

My plan is to do this every other water change now. Or twice a month because I do 10 gallons weekly.

Anyone else doing this method?
Thoughts? Comments?

Bear in mind as I mentioned above, I was vac'ing on a regular basis using the traditional drain into your water change bucket... This is what the sock looked like the first time I tried this. Nasty!

 

[sde1500]

I've done something like this a few times. I am on auto water changes so rarely vacuum the sand bed anymore, its been months really. Last time what I did was put a sock in the sock section of my sump, I usually don't run one, and siphon from the sand bed through the sock into my sump so was able to keep the tank running the whole time. Pulled quite a bit of gunk out. Now that I am doing as much as I can to automate things and keep my hands out of the tank, looking up other options, like adding a sea cucumber to keep the bed stirred and cleaner.

 

[mcgyvr]

Please don't use the words genius with someone that wears their hat like that.. :wildone:
Seen it.. done it. got the t-shirt

I've used that technique many times in the past with cyano on the surface/rocks,etc... but I am in the camp of those that avoid disturbing a sand bed regardless of thickness..

 

[jlmawp]

I do something similar with my nano, except I don’t have a sump, so I filter into a sock in a funnel, which empties into a gallon jug. When it fills up, I put the water back in.

Honestly, it doesn’t make nearly the difference you think it would. I also disagree with his idea of putting oxygen deeper into the sand bed. Anaerobic processes are beneficial to your tank.

 

[cody6766]

I've used that technique many times in the past with cyano on the surface/rocks,etc...

That's when I've used this most often. It's great when you need to clean up more stuff than you'll be able to get with the normal volume of water you normally remove during a normal water change. I probably only do something like this once or a few times a year, but it is a useful bit of knowledge when tank conditions call for it.

 

[Tripod1404]

Isn't this a pretty common thing? I was doing this 20 years ago on my fresh water tank. The only difference was I was filtering water through the fishnet, rather than filter sock. I dont get why the side hats is acting like he discovered something not heard of.

And I am not a big fan of disturbing anaerobic regions of sand bed. Anaerobic bacteria play an important role in an aquarium and disturbing and exposing them to oxygen kills them. THis method will basically kill a portion of your bio-filter and release the locked up N and P.

 

[Pslreefer]

Genius idea! Does anyone else gravel vac like this?

Tried watching it l,couldn't get past 5 seconds of looking at that guy lol

 

[deputydog95]

I told you guys to skip to the 4 min mark LOL

 

[deputydog95]

I've got quite a bit of rock in my tank, as well as rock in my sump. While the sand bed may help out with nitrates and phosphates, you're also generating them at the same time with so much rotting detritus in there.

Considering a ton of people run bare bottom tanks with tremendous success, I see the sand bed as more of a decoration or a place for certain species to hang out in.

My tank looks better than it has in two years (feverishly knocking on wood) so I'm going to keep vaccin'g the crap out of it. Pun intended

 

[jrill]

Yep, old school. Not his idea.

 

[Akram]

He said my corals responded well to it lol, he’s got nothing in that tank if you pay attention.
I’ve done that with a canister filter

 

[WVfishguy]

For the past 40 years I've basically been cleaning gravel beds with a gravel washer like that shown in the video, and for the past 20 years I've been doing it for a living. But I dispose of the old water and replace it with new. I don't filter the filth and place it back in the tank.

I will always deep clean the sand/gravel bed in all tanks, salt or fresh. I'm not leaving that incredible amount of black crap in any of my tanks, again, saltwater or fresh. I'm exporting it. And I always will. I don't believe any amount of magic bacteria will render that much nitrogenous waste harmless in a closed system. I've read about the magic properties of "deep sand beds" since that term came into use, and I don't believe a word.

Over the years, I've also read/heard the term "tank crash." Which is what I believe happens when you permit pollutants to get to a certain level. So I don't.

You can disagree. But I had to maintain more than 100 aquaria for decades. And I never had a crash. So pardon me if I'm dogmatic on this issue.

 

[d2mini]

I've done something like this a few times. I am on auto water changes so rarely vacuum the sand bed anymore, its been months really. Last time what I did was put a sock in the sock section of my sump, I usually don't run one, and siphon from the sand bed through the sock into my sump so was able to keep the tank running the whole time. Pulled quite a bit of gunk out. Now that I am doing as much as I can to automate things and keep my hands out of the tank, looking up other options, like adding a sea cucumber to keep the bed stirred and cleaner.

I use a thin pipette to blast the sand bed to get clouds of gunk to rise into the water column. Some will get filtered out, some will feed the coral, some will resettle. Helps keep the sand bed looking cleaner and has no ill effect on the tank/corals.

 

[deputydog95]

He said my corals responded well to it lol, he’s got nothing in that tank if you pay attention.
I’ve done that with a canister filter

Yeah, he doesn't have much in that tank. After googling around some, I've found other videos where they use a canister vac. Same concept. I like the simplicity of this one though... No extra equipment. Super simple. Vacuum to your heart's content with no limitations on time because you're not draining water, and then yank the sock out and clean it when you get around to it.

For the past 40 years I've basically been cleaning gravel beds with a gravel washer like that shown in the video, and for the past 20 years I've been doing it for a living. But I dispose of the old water and replace it with new. I don't filter the filth and place it back in the tank.

I will always deep clean the sand/gravel bed in all tanks, salt or fresh. I'm not leaving that incredible amount of black crap in any of my tanks, again, saltwater or fresh. I'm exporting it. And I always will. I don't believe any amount of magic bacteria will render that much nitrogenous waste harmless in a closed system. I've read about the magic properties of "deep sand beds" since that term came into use, and I don't believe a word.

Over the years, I've also read/heard the term "tank crash." Which is what I believe happens when you permit pollutants to get to a certain level. So I don't.

You can disagree. But I had to maintain more than 100 aquaria for decades. And I never had a crash. So pardon me if I'm dogmatic on this issue.

I've had a number of pro's tell me this over the years. Not necessarily about this particular method, but they always insisted on regular gravel vacs on some level. Considering folks run spectacular bare bottom tanks tells me that the sand can simply be a decoration that needs to be cleaned and maintained like other components of the system. Now I wouldn't necessarily go from never vac'ing to going crazy on it for fear of disrupting all that garbage at once. In my case I started doing sections at a time into my drain water, and then graduated to this method where I can do the whole tank at once with no issues or effects on the tank. I'm a believer and think anything you can export out in a closed system is a good thing.

I use a thin pipette to blast the sand bed to get clouds of gunk to rise into the water column. Some will get filtered out, some will feed the coral, some will resettle. Helps keep the sand bed looking cleaner and has no ill effect on the tank/corals.

I've tried stirring the sand bed and hoping to filter some of that stuff out, but it doesn't seem overly effective and a lot of that sediment and detritus ends up settling into the pores on the rocks which makes it a lot harder to get at.

FWIW, I also use a "reef blaster" (essentially a rechargeable submersible pump) to blow out the rocks and get the garage into suspension right before I do a water change. As an added bonus, that reef blaster is great for pumping your water bank into the tank (it's not over powerful) and for pumping water out of your sump. If you have stirred your sump up in a while, you'll be shocked at how much crap is hiding in there. It's taken me 3 water changes to "almost" get the sump to the point where the water I'm pulling out is not brown.

 

[d2mini]

I've tried stirring the sand bed and hoping to filter some of that stuff out, but it doesn't seem overly effective and a lot of that sediment and detritus ends up settling into the pores on the rocks which makes it a lot harder to get at.

FWIW, I also use a "reef blaster" (essentially a rechargeable submersible pump) to blow out the rocks and get the garage into suspension right before I do a water change. As an added bonus, that reef blaster is great for pumping your water bank into the tank (it's not over powerful) and for pumping water out of your sump. If you have stirred your sump up in a while, you'll be shocked at how much crap is hiding in there. It's taken me 3 water changes to "almost" get the sump to the point where the water I'm pulling out is not brown.

Yup, its true... some of that will settle on the rocks. I use a turkey baster (poor mans reef blaster LOL) to blast some detritus off the rocks. My problem is I have very very little sand bed that would be accessible by your typical gravel vac.

 

[reefwiser]

Nothing new been doing this for years.

 

[bcb577]

For the past 40 years I've basically been cleaning gravel beds with a gravel washer like that shown in the video, and for the past 20 years I've been doing it for a living. But I dispose of the old water and replace it with new. I don't filter the filth and place it back in the tank.

I will always deep clean the sand/gravel bed in all tanks, salt or fresh. I'm not leaving that incredible amount of black crap in any of my tanks, again, saltwater or fresh. I'm exporting it. And I always will. I don't believe any amount of magic bacteria will render that much nitrogenous waste harmless in a closed system. I've read about the magic properties of "deep sand beds" since that term came into use, and I don't believe a word.

Over the years, I've also read/heard the term "tank crash." Which is what I believe happens when you permit pollutants to get to a certain level. So I don't.

You can disagree. But I had to maintain more than 100 aquaria for decades. And I never had a crash. So pardon me if I'm dogmatic on this issue.

 

[bcb577]

I've had my tank going in one form or another for 4 years (switched tanks same rock) and I do a deep siphoning of my sand bed every time I clean my tank! It's amazing how much you get out of it,I believe what detritus hurried into the sand bed is far worse than me siphoning it,I see no reason not to do this.