Accidentally stirred sand bed a lot

[cww81]

Hello all, I am currently on my way to my house from college with my 40G reef tank. I left the sand with water just covering it inside the tank and as I was bringing it down the stairs with some help all of the sand slid to one side and back to the other stirring it up and making it really cloudy. I have heard horror stories about stirring sand beds and having it crash tanks. My system has been up for 4 months now. Should I leave the sand as is or should I take it out and wash it and replace? I’m just scared for my fish and coral, I’ll be home in around 30 minutes. thank y’all!

 

[bigdrew]

After only 4 months, I suspect that a major stir up would be fine. I would run some mechanical filtration (filter sock or floss or something) to catch it, and then just monitor the situation.

 

[brandon429]

rinse it 100% and put back see here below for steps. It’s not that yours can’t survive, it’s that the clouding waste isn’t helpful to any reef system.

 

[brandon429]

Official Sand Rinse and Tank Transfer thread

If you are reading this thread to cure a tank invasion from a link I sent you, we do not need to identify your type of invasion here we do not need you to test anything at anytime regarding nitrate, phosphate etc Above all, we do not need to see a microscope slide picture of your invasion at...

www.reef2reef.com

take pics of your work we want the jobs logged. A thread using tap water to clean reefs and never recycle. We are so tight on cycle control, ammonia readings aren’t asked for. Couple hundred jobs no loss no parameters discussed.

a reef sandbed is a filthy diaper, clearly

you have a chance to change it now, before cyano phase.

 

[OREGONIC]

You should be fine. We moved about six months ago and my tank was just over 2 years old at the time. I do occasionally stir my sand a little but it got super stirred with the rocks out and about 5 inches of water with all the fish in it. Super cloudy couldn’t see the bottom. It took about 3 hours from the time I started draining to started to fill back up all fish were fine. When I filled it back up I did use about 30% of the old water I brought in buckets with the rocks so they got 70% fresh clean saltwater to dilute anything bad that was stirred up. Also ran carbon for a few weeks.

 

[AcroNem]

I've moved many, many times with a bunch of systems and all but one time left the sand in. The horror stories are always told about stirring sand but so long as you watch everything after your move (as you should monitor parameters anyway) you should be fine.

 

[brandon429]

It’s the future invasion, the long scope game, the waste has no benefit. Keeping waste caused all entrants above and not keeping it sent the tanks home uninvaded. Clean bc you’re at an intervention point, your tank works better when organics aren’t clogging your surface area.

you will increase the lifespan of any nano reef by rip cleaning it, rip cleaned nanos outlive non rip cleaned ones/ handy patterns. The clouding is harmful, but reefs are so adaptive they tolerate it as we can see. to be free of the clouding is better in every way, keeping it is keeping a bioload In the system that doesn’t benefit you. Like purposefully adding the liquid + whole waste from extra fish but not having extra fish to look at - detritus ages a nano reef and is the sole cause of old tank syndrome. Without detritus clogging pores, a reef tank will permanently regulate its bacteria to be healthy and in balance, no supplements required. O2 and co2 balances are much more favorable in the low organics sink condition.

 

[brandon429]

An amazing degree of posts in this Emergency forum can be remedied by full tank control and waste ejection, every page has more than one condition resulting from mass organics storage. Being able ( willing ) to rip clean would fix about 25% of the entrants into the nuisance algae forum or better. 34 pgs of fixed reefs is pattern gold

 

[Mikeltee]

Not an issue but you should be vacuuming the sand at least twice a month. This takes all of 5 minutes and even a toddler can do it. For a mere $10 you too can own your own Python vacuum kit. You also should have nasarrius snails to clean the sand. Build a balanced reef, maintain it(takes an hour a month) and don't worry when small things like this happens.