Reef.Blue
Active Member
I try to clean my sand bed out with my syphon, but the sand keeps getting sucked up due to me making the wrong decision and buying very fine sand. Any tips of how to clean the sand efficiently without syphoning it up?
Cleaning sand bed issue
- Thread starter Reef.Blue
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StatelineReefer
Reef Safe With Caution
Pinch or fold the hose to control the water flow while you clean your sandbed
mfinn
likes zoanthids
Yeah pinch the hose to slow down the flow. I used to hold my thumb over the end of the hose, over the bucket to regulate how much flow is going through the hose.
I'm assuming you are using a gravel vac.
I'm assuming you are using a gravel vac.
nothing_fancy
Active Member
Rather than syphoning you could just blow it out with a baster or something similar. If you've got any clumps of algae in the sand just manual removal of the algae is fine. I blow mine out real quick once a week with the return off and afterward I dump in a little bit of coral snow to grab anything thats hanging out in the water column.
mmusc1987
New Member
I agree with this. I have a diamond watchman and I thoroughly enjoy watch his engineered marvels with my sand. He moves it all from one side of the tank to the other in mere hours. Sand is clean though! That is algae on the glass not the sand.
ReefEco
Well-Known Member
You can also increase the diameter of the hose, or attach a short length of 2-3" clear PVC tube (Powertec sells cheap lengths) which basically allows you to plunge the pipe into the sand and suck out detritus, but the suction is not enough to suck up the heavier sand, just the lighter detritus you want to remove. This is the basic setup of most gravel vacs (like the Python) - a smaller tube attached to a ~2" diameter length at the end.
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OP
OP
Reef.Blue
Active Member
I was thinking about getting one of those, but don't they need coarse sand? I have very fine sand.I agree with this. I have a diamond watchman and I thoroughly enjoy watch his engineered marvels with my sand. He moves it all from one side of the tank to the other in mere hours. Sand is clean though! That is algae on the glass not the sand.
