gravel vacing an SPS tank

[Dejavu]

I have been wondering for some time how many people gravel vac their sand bed. I currently have a 3yr old sps dominated reef with a 4” sand bed. I perform 10 gal water changes every week and suck the top layer of sand off. I have not had any issue with hair algae or cyon for some time, and PO4 read 0 (salifert test). But some of my acro seem to brown out. I have a feeling that my sand bed is high in nutrients and was wondering if there would be an ill effect if I was to start gravel vac my sand bed. Any feed back would be great
Thanks.

 

[trueblackpercula]

do not gravel vac you send bed it will crashhhhhhhhhhhh

 

[Dejavu]

trueblackpercula, that what i thought, but i have talked to a few people that have 3" sand beds that say it the only way to get the nutrients out. I always thought that you don't distrub DSB. maybe 3" is not consider a DSB?

 

[trueblackpercula]

its a 3" sb but how much of it do you have 150 lbs 200 lbs if you use the sand bed caculator it will probally give you lbs you have. I would not do it but its worth a try

 

[Dejavu]

It would be intersting to see form some of the people what do gravel vac how eep their sand bed is and what benefit do they think their get by gravel vacing.

 

[trueblackpercula]

If you are looking to take care of the bed then add some recharging kits. There are a few on line venders that sell this stuff.

 

[toastman]

I would vac the bed, I just wouldnt do the entire tank at once, just do sections when you do your 10 gallong water changes, do a 1/6 of the tank, then next time do another section, sand gets disturbed all the time in mine, a power head comes unhooked and blasts a hole, and that has to be worse for the system then vacuming out the nutrients, when I power head blasts a hole the nutrients get into the waterflow not out into a bucket

 

[DitchPlains2]

eeeek

eeeek

I had a dsb from 3 to 7 inches in places, DO NOT, DO NOT Vaccum. what you will disturb in the process is lots of PO4, and worse, Nitrates, Nitrites, and possibly Amonia trapped in the layers of sand. I once tried to siphon out the dsb it killed two fish and quite a few corals.

My suggestion is remove your corals to a quarrentine tank, using mostly your current water, along with any delicate fish, then vaccum out your dsb, COMPLETELY! Followed by some major water changes, allow a few days to pass checking nitrate and nitrite levels daily.

When all is wel move fish and corals back into display.

Otherwise you are risking the health of corals and fish, I mean its a good chance you will kill quite a few things in the process.

Just what happened to me, I tried this method, friendly advice, take it or leave it.

When you get rid of the DSB, welcome to BB land, and I wil tell you much easier and free of problems. I can attest to the difference, its huge, not trying to start that issue again but just my experience.

cheers and best of luck to you.

David

:thumbsup:

 

[RichConley]

You can vac the bed all you want, just dont go any deeper than about an inch. Its bad down there.

 

[DitchPlains2]

Rich

Rich

There's no guarantee that the 1st inch will not have PO4 or worse, nor does it convincingly keep those nasties I previously mentioned from seeping into the water collumn from the layer below 1 inch you suggest siphoning. I think it's a best a crap shoot, thus why most static dsb's are a mystery as to what percentage of N's, Po4's or even worse Amonia, and not to mention Detritus that is trapped or locked within them. I would err on the cautious side here and save yourself the headaches, use a quaratine tank and not risk it.

good luck
David

 

[DarkXerox]

Pretty sure I saw vacuuming going on at the Waikiki aquarium on their different displays during cleanings. I think that if you aren't running a truly deep DSB you should not have much of an issue, especially if you have animals such as sand sifting gobies, pistol shrimp, or other sand agitators.

But I think that it is a risk that maybe you shouldn't delve into just yet. I have heard of a lot of people that take powerheads to the sand though. Just seems like the equivalent of a hurricane or storm surge to me.

Off topic but do you still have that filefish in your gallery?

 

[Dejavu]

No i don't have the file fish any more. I lost all my fish this past winter in a power outage. Had him for 1.5 yrs though.