need to change sand?

[borcu]

hi
i m using about 2-3'' sandbed for 5 years in 200 g. i have no problem except detrius. too much detrius in my sand. never phospat or nitrat detected. and i did not touch sand in 5 years.. i m thinking to change my fts and maybe i can change my sand to new sand maybe live sand.
so what do u think? what should i do? change all, change some and run out the sediments left or no touch?

 

[elegance coral]

I would just start vacuuming a section of it at a time during water changes with a gravel vac. This will remove the detritus, and you won't have to buy new sand.

 

[KarlBob]

I've seen some people suggest adding new sand periodically, whether or not the existing sand is filled with detritus. Supposedly, it has something to do with the alkalinity/pH buffering effects of aragonite sand, which don't last forever.

 

[albano]

i m using about 2-3'' sandbed for 5 years... maybe i can change my sand to new sand maybe live sand

You've got LIVE SAND...you can vacumn it or remove some to rinse in SALT WATER (not fresh water), either way, you should be ready to use a diatom filter to clean up the water quickly, after disturbing the sand bed.

 

[tabwyo]

Vacuum the sand and call it a day........

 

[KarlBob]

"Live sand" is just sand with nitrifying/denitrifying bacteria, plus (usually) worms, pods, tiny sea cucumbers, etc. inside it. The commercially available bags labeled live sand usually just contain sand and water with a couple of species of nitrifying bacteria in it. Since your current sand already contains bacteria, and probably already contains worms/pods/etc., you don't need to spend the extra money on "live sand". If you want to boost the biodiversity of your sand bed, ask someone else with an established tank for a cup or so of their sand, and add it when you add the "dead" sand.

 

[hlem]

why bother with changing anything if everything is doing fine? you'll just mess up what you already have right.

 

[KarlBob]

As far as I can tell, the reason the OP wanted to change the sand was its appearance. There are no problems with excess phosphate or nitrate, but the sand doesn't look "clean" any more.

My $0.02: Beach sand looks pristine for two reasons - First, because it's constantly being rinsed by waves; second, because the nearest city paid someone big bucks to bring in pristine sand and dump it on the shoreline. (A few cities are blessed with sparkling white sand, but others feel compelled to import it to meet people's expectations.) Detritus in sand is totally natural, and there are critters in the sand to take care of it. Until the nitrates/phosphates get out of hand, the buffering capacity argument is the only reason I would consider changing the sand.

 

[borcu]

i m happy now after your thoughts. i m not going to play with my sand.
do you suggest sand sifting starfish for cleaning?

 

[KarlBob]

I haven't read many good things about sand-sifting starfish. The consensus seems to be that unless they have a huge tank, they eat everything they can find in the sandbed, then starve.

I'm more partial to a shrimp goby and a pistol shrimp for keeping sand stirred. Both critters are capable of eating frozen food, nori, etc., so they're far less likely to starve. Watching the shrimp continually work on its burrow is fun, too. On the other hand, if you have loosely piled rocks, a goby/shrimp pair can easily undermine them. If you decide to go the shrimp/goby route, sink the bottom rocks in your tank all the way to the glass, so they're not being held up by sand.

Edit: I'm no expert, but a 200 gallon tank that's been established for 5 years just might be able to maintain a sand-sifting starfish. The starvation cases I've read about have generally been in smaller tanks than that. There should be lots of life in the sand for the starfish to eat, and there might be enough room for the population to rebound in each area between visits by the starfish.

 

[rswood1]

Just vacuum the sand.