how often should sand bed be changed.

[Proteus Meep]

That device you made is genius! #lifehack

Thanks, makes the task really easy, i have the tube pushed into the remaining sand a bit or flat on the bottom glass and lift it up slightly once it is full of sand which allows it to come out at a controlled rate and deposit exactly where i want it and without any clouding

 

[Proteus Meep]

Geezs every 3 months thats what i call dedication . i eill try and remove little by little it will be interesting .

That's the way to go if you are going to attempt refreshing it, VERY slowly in small sections week by week, i would have some carbon and a pack of Polyfilter on standby just incase of water issues, and some water on standby as well

 

[Esquire805]

I second this. While BRS had problems, you'll find supporting evidence from @brandon429 that suggest it can easily be done. I use his experience and advice to change sand in a small tank without issue.
BRS has been my number one resource for reefing...and I owe them a lot... more than I could express....HOWEVER, they at times show a mild misunderstanding of bacterial growth curves and aspects of bioload and carrying capacity so occasionally, and I mean rarely, they make incorrect inference as to why they encountered their problems in the experiments they run. If they had a biologist in the background to help scrutinize their experiments, they would not jump to some of the conclusions they do.

So i ended up taking about a 5 gallon bucket worth.. it was so dirty and did a major water change. my phosphate read 9 on ulr which is about 28 ppm better than before.

 

[Esquire805]

That's the way to go if you are going to attempt refreshing it, VERY slowly in small sections week by week, i would have some carbon and a pack of Polyfilter on standby just incase of water issues, and some water on standby as well

Yes i love this stuff but can be pricey

 

[Proteus Meep]

Yes i love this stuff but can be pricey

Agreed a bit pricey here in the UK as well, I swear by the stuff i use it 24/7 cut into 1" strips so i get the chemical filtration benefit without too much mechanical filtering as i like to leave some finer particulates for my creatures to feed upon

 

[ca1ore]

Personally i advise people determined to run a DSB to run it in the sump in two separate tubs that way every 3 years a tub can be pulled and replaced with fresh sand so in that way it never reaches critical mass and can be run indefinitely on this rotation method and doesn't become problematic.

Yup, RDSB is the way to go. I keep about 3-4" of sand in my display, but I have nine sand burrowing wrasses so it never has a chance to go bad.

 

[Ricky_Reef]

Some hobbyists just won't leave well enough alone then wonder why they have problems... Add a GFO reactor and siphon your sand. My single diamond goby that I've had for several years sifts so much sand by himself that it looks like I just added it.

 

[Esquire805]

Some hobbyists just won't leave well enough alone then wonder why they have problems... Add a GFO reactor and siphon your sand. My single diamond goby that I've had for several years sifts so much sand by himself that it looks like I just added it.

It eas the best thing i ever did my tank is very clear now no ill effects of taking sand out

 

[hyeclass]

Many people change a section of their sand bed out regularly i myself change nearly 100% of my sand bed in my nano every 3 months and in my previous larger reef before that i changed about 30% every 3 to 4 months and have done so for the past 18 years and see nothing but positive results from the method, it is an excellent export and refreshing mechanism helping towards preventing old tank syndrome

On a sand bed that is deeper or sat for a long time a VERY cautious approach is required as a lot of nasties will potentially have built up that you don't really want to disturb into the water column which is one of the reasons why deep sand beds fell out of favour and are often referred to as ticking time bombs, despite what many believe they do have a finite lifespan even with maintenance and will at some point require intervention/refreshing or at some point it will reach critical mass as it were

Personally i advise people determined to run a DSB to run it in the sump in two separate tubs that way every 3 years a tub can be pulled and replaced with fresh sand so in that way it never reaches critical mass and can be run indefinitely on this rotation method and doesn't become problematic

BRS had issues because they unbalanced the system by trying to remove and not replace and go bare bottom that is one of the reasons they are very much pro sand bed now

Here is my nano that i suck the used smelly discoloured sand out with a hose and replace with glorious bright white sand every 3 months

And i use this tube with half a pop bottle to put the sand in right to the bottom exactly where i want it to go with no mess

Preferably dry or wet sand would you recommend they also have different types of sand, sand is very interesting

 

[Proteus Meep]

My preference is the Caribsea Fiji Pink, I use the dry sand as I can't see much point paying the extra and using the live sand in an already established system, also as I run a nano I do not use a whole bag in one go so using dry means it just happily sits until I next need it

 

[Amaroq]

@Proteus Meep So what do you do with the 'old' sand you remove? Do you clean it someway and reuse it later on? Perhaps a bleach soak to remove organics then let it soak in dechlorinater and air dry afterwards to be extra safe? Seems quite wasteful to just throw it all away every 3 months, not to mention that the 'new' sand must still be 'old' sand from a beach somewhere no? The idea sounds very interesting either way! I'm curious how Carib-Sea and other manufactures go about cleaning the sand before bagging it up for retail, if at all? I for one can say I've consistently found small sticks and other things in my bags of sand when I've first set up my tanks in the past.

 

[Proteus Meep]

@Proteus Meep So what do you do with the 'old' sand you remove? Do you clean it someway and reuse it later

Being a nano and a shallow sandbed i just discard my sand as it is effectively only a few cups full or so (for convenience but also for health reasons)

But i see no problem with just giving it a good scrub by rubbing it together by hand in tapwater or ro to get it back to the cleaner original look and remove the bio gunk build up if all your after is the brighter look...

...but i do notice that when adding fresh sand that the corals look absolutely glorious for weeks afterwards i reason that the fresh minerals released by the sand are appreciated by the corals which in the ocean would be available to the corals through the constant abrasion by wave action of the sand itself where as in our tanks it doesn't receive that constant abrasion and over time in our aquarium with the build up of organic and bacterial biofilm due to the lack of abrasion becomes effectively sealed from further release of these coral pleasing minerals...or maybe it's just the action of removing the old smelly sand and replacing with new that they enjoy or a combination of different reasons all I know for certain is I see nothing but positive results from the method of changing it for fresh

As to the manufacturers cleaning the sand, the ocean does it for them so it doesn't have that same thick bacterial and detritus build up like it develops in our aquariums as most sand is collected from beaches and has experienced some quite intense wave action cleaning before coming to rest on the shore

 

[Nano sapiens]

A properly functioning 5" DSB can process a lot of nitrate, so I'd go nice and slow when changing the sand out and monitor the nitrate level.

Another reason to go slow is to mitigate the release of hydrogen sulfate that may have built up in the lower anaerobic areas.

 

[Esquire805]

A properly functioning 5" DSB can process a lot of nitrate, so I'd go nice and slow when changing the sand out and monitor the nitrate level.

Another reason to go slow is to mitigate the release of hydrogen sulfate that may have built up in the lower anaerobic areas.

In my case i added no pox while doing it and nothing bad happened

 

[Esquire805]

I just moved so I changed my sand when I set my aquarium up at the new place (previous sand bed was 2 years old). I am blown away by the difference. The water is so much clearer and the glass is staying cleaner much longer. It didnt look bad before and everything was healthy but I guess it slowly started getting dirtier so I didnt notice. From what I have seen I will likely change my sand bed every 1 1/2 - 2 years.








snaptube vidmate

I npticed the same like wow the watee is veey clear now

 

[Josh_boss]

I don’t ever change my sand but this is what I siphon out every other month or so ) most of this is tang poop . Never have issues with my sand long term

 

[Esquire805]

I don’t ever change my sand but this is what I siphon out every other month or so ) most of this is tang poop . Never have issues with my sand long term

Looks interesting

 

[Josh_boss]

Looks interesting

Smells interesting too lol

 

[Esquire805]

Smells interesting too lol

Lol it does had my house smelling like a swamp.

 

[Crustaceon]

99.99% of problems people have on this forum are related to them trying to make their tanks pristine. It’s not the ocean and odds are never will be as far as success goes no matter how hard you try. Do we think the sand on the ocean floor is pristine? Lol, no. It’s the ultimate DSB and it’s full of detritus. Don’t do too many things people. Siphoning the sand a little every now and then is plenty.