Gunk on sandbed and vacuuming it off

[Afish70]

Ok all i have what is either Diatoms or Dino beginning to form on my sandbed. I have spoke to someone that told me to syphon the sand just on the surface and have the exit end of hose go through a 25 micron filter sock. Then have a pump return the clean water back to the tank. My dumb question is what should I use for the container for the water to go in to after it passes through filter sock? Do i need to use a food grade container? Can i use the container i use for my new fresh salt water when doing water changes? i want to get this done before it starts to get worse. Your help will be rgeatky appreciated.

 

[vertigo01]

IMHO you need to find out if it's diatoms or dinos.
If diatoms, they will return until they have depleted all of the silicates in the tank.

Dinos are a whole different ball game of which I am all too unfamiliar with their eradication.

To answer your question, you can use any food grade plastic container with which to capture the siphoned water.

After which I would clean thoroughly with either peroxide, vinegar or a bleach solution. Just in case it is in fact dinos.

 

[Tallison]

You can siphon or do what I did and get conches and a diamond goby. They're constantly cleaning my sand

 

[Afish70]

You can siphon or do what I did and get conches and a diamond goby. They're constantly cleaning my sand

I was told that if it is Dino that it would could fish & snails if they ate it. I had a Ich issue so all fish are in a QT until 1st of February so I am going FOWLR in my DT right now. In the last few days i have found and killed not one but two gorilla crabs in my DT. I have noticed that all of the hermits I had were gone, and my conch was gone too. I wonder if the deaths of hermits, snails and conch contributed to the nutrient spike that would have caused this outbreak.

 

[Kamden Uelton]

Conchs eat Dino I think, I wouldn't vacuum the sand as there is LOTS of life in the sanded, you could be siphoning off copepods, worms, and other beneficial creatures just find something that will eat the Dino vacuuming your sand should be the last resort IMO.

 

[saltyfilmfolks]

I would look into a canister filter. Or reactor.
Use floss only and probably a GAC. Change the floss after cleaning.

If your sand is already pretty clean , vacuuming it is not a problem. A lot of folks do it regularly.

The reason to vaccine Dino’s is to lower thier biomass and stop them from stripping the tank further of nutrients , lowing the rate at witch they multiply and reducing the toxins associated with them.

If it’s an established tank it’s not likely diatoms unless your water is adding some silicates. Diatoms in general are a slightly dusty texture as they have a skeletal structure.

So yes. A Home Depot bucket is fine to use.