Shallow sand bed cleaning tips?

[Bluephish13]

Some people pointed out to me my previous method of cleaning my SSB is not correct.

About to do a water change, So what is the correct way to maintain/clean a SSB.?

I already keep a few super tongan nass. snails, a smaller type of nass, And i have maybe like 4-5 hermits. I had more hermits but i have one huge dominant scarlet hermit that kills every one else.

sand 0-1" deep.

Thanks

 

[Newreeflady]

Tagging along. Considering a bed of this depth in my 56g... it'd be good to get a few people who have run ssb for a long time with success. I also wonder if floor area has something to do with it...

-A

 

[der_wille_zur_macht]

Can you explain your current method? And tell us the justification the other party had for calling it "incorrect?"

There are a lot of methods, some have advantages or disadvantages and it depends at least a little on your approach to tank and sand maintenance.

Some people like to really vacuum the bed as often as possible to keep nutrient content low and a sparkling clean look to the sand. Other people claim that "destroys" the beneficial micro-life present in the sandbed, and state that you should leave it alone and let nature keep it clean - adding inverts if it's not self-cleaning right now.

The split in opinions shows that shallow beds really are a cross between deep beds and bare bottoms. The first approach is pretty much what a bare bottom fan would tell you to do, and the second is what a DSB fan would tell you to do.

IMHO neither method is inherently better, they're just different.

 

[Tonynlo]

From what I read in the past. Different critters live at different depths of a sand bed. This is why people run a DSB inside of their sump as a method of filtration. There are some beneficial creatures in a SSB, so I don't siphon the entire tank at once. I siphon 1/3 of the tank at a time during routine water changes. A DSB has it's own way of getting rid of waste and in my opinion, that is the main benefit (besides looking awesome). A SSB needs a little help. My $.02

 

[Bluephish13]

der wille - my current method would be most like the first you mention. I do about 15 gallons change. First 5 gallons i just syphon the most exposed parts of the sand as much as i can get. So i got like half my sand bed out in the bucket, then i use another 5 gallons form just the clean water in the mid level of the tank to swirl around in the bucket and dump to get the sand clean. Then i lower sand back in with a cup and it looks like brand new sand. Very little blows around with the pumps off.

Keep in mind i have only about 25 lbs in the display, so really not much at all.

Another 35 in the refugium that i will not touch. 4"deep. Plenty of micro life in the fuge and display.

 

[der_wille_zur_macht]

Bluephish, I don't see a problem with cleaning the sand, but maybe adjusting your technique would yield the same results for less effort. If you use a siphon with lower velocity you can probably "vacuum" the sand without actually sucking it out of the tank.

 

[Bluephish13]

I do have a gravel vac type hose. With the sugar fine it tends to suck out a lot of sand and miss the heavier stuff This is why i just went strait to syphoning it out.

Really not as long a process as it sounds.

thanks all,

Maybe i will go back to trying just the vac for a while. Unless someone tells me otherwise..

 

[Namyar]

Re: Shallow sand bed cleaning tips?

i dont understand how people can say what anyone does to clean san is not correct. But just siphon and stir it up get it out of the water think about it doesnt the ocean just stir itself up to clean and move the junk out. no skimmers or manual cleaning.
just my thought.

 

[Johnny C]

i dont understand how people can say what anyone does to clean san is not correct. But just siphon and stir it up get it out of the water think about it doesnt the ocean just stir itself up to clean and move the junk out. no skimmers or manual cleaning.
just my thought.

Nobody told him that he was wrong, but in a thread about a week ago he mentioned having STN issues and was trying to figure the cause. Myself (and a few others) suggested taking a break on removing + washing all of his sand and maybe see if it helped.



To the OP; I highly suggest a sand-sifting Conch. I have one for my SSB and he keeps it stirred and clean. HTH

 

[Gary Majchrzak]

I've been 50/50 SSB/BB since starting up my present aquarium and I've never needed to vac what little sandbed I have. There's very little "bad stuff" in it to remove. (It's loaded with micro brittle stars and the occasional sandbed worm. Little to no detritus. Fish poop gets lifted off bottom of my aquarium and gets flushed up and into the overflows. Fish poop literally travels upwards.)

FWIW I never used to vac my DSB when I had one, either.

No Nassarius here... ever. (Useless to me the way I run my aquarium.)

You might want to manually stir up a portion of a SSB every so often with a cleaning magnet or powerhead. Certain well discussed critters will stir things up, too.

 

[Bluephish13]

yeah cali is right my bad. Sorry for the poor wording. They did not say it was incorrect just a possible cause for my tank issues.


I think my sand is the least of my problems right now. lol



So i did not use the stupid vac cause i hate it. I just syphoned out was visibly dirty on top, and stirred it around a little.

 

[tmz]

Several of my tanks are SSB with a few deeper pools for wrasses to sleep in.I've had the same fine grained sand in them for several years. A few nasarius snails and a sand sifting goby work well for me but the gobies do spray sand that ocassionaly needs to be blown off corals. Periodic puffing with a turkey baster cleans it up an sends any detritus into the water column so it can be filtered out. I don't siphon it out and don't plan to for several years and then I'll do it a little at a time with replacement.

 

[Newreeflady]

I don't siphon it out and don't plan to for several years and then I'll do it a little at a time with replacement.

Is it safe to remove your deep sandbed parts, even a little at a time? Is this well-documented as a good method for keeping a dsb/ssb?

Thanks!
Angela

 

[Newreeflady]

Little to no detritus. Fish poop gets lifted off bottom of my aquarium and gets flushed up and into the overflows. Fish poop literally travels upwards.

See, this is clearly a flow thing- Do you have a google sketchup depiction of your flow? I am wondering how to set up these awesome flow patterns- I never see anything lifted magically off of my sandbed. Is it simply a matter of quantity of flow, or can one do this with, oh, say, an Eheim 1262 CL and main pump?

thx!
Angela

 

[tmz]

I have siphoned out much of the 7yr old deep sand bed in one of my tanks a little at a time. There is a risk of releasing hydrogen sulfide when disturbing an old settled bed. Once water stops moving down to deep areas if the sand packs in or clogs for a lack of benthic fauana and channeling, the hypoxic areas can become anoxic and the bacteria that were using nitrate for oxygen will turn to sulfate(SO4) with hydrogen sulfide as a by product. So perioodic removal of some sand as it ages and replenishment with live sand are prudent steps,in my opinion. I did see a few black spots on buried rock which may indicate some sulfide formation but the tank suffered no ill effects. That tank is, however, diluted in that it is integrated with 500 gallons of the rest of the system exchanging about 600gph.

 

[Gary Majchrzak]

See, this is clearly a flow thing- Do you have a google sketchup depiction of your flow? I am wondering how to set up these awesome flow patterns- I never see anything lifted magically off of my sandbed. Is it simply a matter of quantity of flow, or can one do this with, oh, say, an Eheim 1262 CL and main pump?

thx!
Angela

there are pix of the flow (made visible with bubbles) in my "new canvas" thread. Basically, you should create a gyre. If you design the gyre so water at the surface flows towards the drains/overflow it will set up flow at the bottom of the aquarium that flows in an opposite direction. Get the gyre moving well enuff that crud gets lifted up off the bottom and you're good to go.

 

[Newreeflady]

there are pix of the flow (made visible with bubbles) in my "new canvas" thread. Basically, you should create a gyre. If you design the gyre so water at the surface flows towards the drains/overflow it will set up flow at the bottom of the aquarium that flows in an opposite direction. Get the gyre moving well enuff that crud gets lifted up off the bottom and you're good to go.

oh me way, cap'n. ... (hopping back over to Gary's thread... )
-A

 

[Bluephish13]

I have been meaning to tune my flow like this.. hopefully today. I Just picked up a acjr but did not hook up the dc8 yet. I should be able to get a decent gyre.

Trying to figure out how to run 3 sets of lights 2 fans, k3,mp40w and all the others is daunting.


When i removed the deep sand from my tank a while back i used a garden hose to syphon it out, the faster you can suck the sand and nasties up the better i would think.

DSB/SSB in my case i tried both neither helped my tank issues.:sad1: