If you don't do this will it CRASH your tank?

Lorenzo Angotti · Jan 20, 2020

Yes, if you have enough critters ie nassarius snails, pistol shrimp and partner, goby watchman, then it helps a lot, I only clean the sand around the front and sides of the tank weekly with a long handle plastic rake and work the bottom sand upwards to the surface so it always looks clean through the glass theres nothing worse in seeing bits of dirt in your sand.

Reef Tripp · Jan 20, 2020

My friend does all the work.

MartinWaite · Jan 20, 2020

I used crushed coral in the back of the tank and sand in the front and as I couldn't reach some of the back for rocks. The next thing I knew it was solid and my nitrates were up and off the scale 200+ when I finally he'd an ICP done as I knew something was wrong but all my test came back OK and I even had my lfs do some testing and their tests came back OK. It was then that I sent off for the ATI ICP which showed the sky high nitrates and then I realised that my test kit was out of date. Whilst I didn't have a wipe out I still lost a few corals. I replaced the crushed coral with live sand and had no problems.

vanisher187 · Jan 20, 2020

If you maintain it no problem. But like anything in our hobby lack of maintenance is just asking for trouble. I stir my bed once a week during my water change. No problems ever with it, but i learned the hard way after a few crashes due to lack of stirring. If you stir a bed you havent in a long time start slow. If you move too much it will release too much stored gases and cause issues. I haven't had an issue since i do a weekly stir.

ScottB · Jan 20, 2020

As has been said already, managing the sand is managing risk over the long term. You might run into trouble, you might not.

It is a little easier in my case as my base rock is all suspended by acrylic rod. Every two weeks, I clamp a maxjet to the inside glass with a soft silicone hose attached and blast away until I can no longer see through the water and am breaking off too many stick frags. Then I turn a couple valves and pump out 35G to a sewer line; turn the valves again and refill.

Finally blast off the rock and swap out socks. Even with this process, there is an amazing amount of filth in 2 inches of sand every time.

A lot of nutrient goes into my tank. What is not consumed by corals needs to come out. That is my old school take on the subject.

Pickwun · Jan 20, 2020

False. I don't have one so if I don't clean it nothing at all will happen. Oh, I don't have water either, or rocks, or much of anything. Pretty much I have a nice glass box full of air. Absolutely zero maintenance.

Tahoe61 · Jan 20, 2020

I used to clean my display tanks sand bed, now nope. It appeared to me each time I cleaned the tank experienced a cyno bloom. Hermits and snails keep it clean enough.
I do vacuum the sand in my macro tank.

Crabs McJones · Jan 20, 2020

Most of you are aware of my crash from a dirty sandbed. Bare bottom now.

Bret Brinkmann · Jan 20, 2020

ScottB said:
As has been said already, managing the sand is managing risk over the long term. You might run into trouble, you might not.

It is a little easier in my case as my base rock is all suspended by acrylic rod. Every two weeks, I clamp a maxjet to the inside glass with a soft silicone hose attached and blast away until I can no longer see through the water and am breaking off too many stick frags. Then I turn a couple valves and pump out 35G to a sewer line; turn the valves again and refill.

Finally blast off the rock and swap out socks. Even with this process, there is an amazing amount of filth in 2 inches of sand every time.

A lot of nutrient goes into my tank. What is not consumed by corals needs to come out. That is my old school take on the subject.

How long does your livestock sit in the cloudy water?

My ceriths keep my sand clean of algea, at least at the surface. My DSB is 4" and has been up for about 4 years now. Never cleaned it. Needed to a few times in the beginning, then I got the ceriths. The growths down deeper I call future cerith food. It's like having an algae scrubber in your sand bed that the snails clean for you.

Below is a link to my sand pics. I know the tank doesn't look good right now. It's an algae haven due to some recent necessary neglect, but the sand is clean.

Snails & conchs that keep sandbeds clean.

I see a lot of posts involving sandbeds with diatom, cyanobacteria, and green hair algae in large patches or that completely taken over. I wanted to demonstrate an easy and fun way to reduce and possibly completely eliminate these nuisances from a sandbed. Snails and conchs can be a highly...

www.reef2reef.com

ReefGrammie · Jan 20, 2020

The only time I messed with my DSB in 11+ years was when I upgraded from the 46-gallon to the 90-gallon tank, which was over 6 years ago. Every once in a while, I might gently siphon off a tiny bit of the top layer, but otherwise, I do nothing to it. I do have an excavating pistol shrimp, who moves portions of the sand around at times. I also keep nasarrius snails, especially those Super Tongan snails!

The cats wrasse · Jan 20, 2020

It's like oil in a car change it regularly (stir it) but if you wait too long to change the oil (dont stir it)...then dont touch it

vlangel · Jan 20, 2020

I have maintenance DSB tanks for a lfs plus I have had a multitude of tanks over the years. I have had DSBs, SSBs and bare bottom tanks. Currently I have a DSB reef and a bare bottom Seahorse tank. The DSBs are by far the easiest and lowest maintenance tanks I have kept. I do have very mature live rock which is teeming with bio-life and I always have nassarius snails and other CUC to do my heavy lifting in the reef with the DSB. I do not do a thing to maintain the sanded.

The bare bottom Seahorse tank must have the bottom detritus syphoned out weekly plus the algae is removed about every 2 weeks minimally. I have considered keeping the seahorses in an aquarium with a DSB but since they are susceptible to bacterial infections, I can not be sure a DSB would not harbor bacteria. However, for a reef or FOWLR I have found DSBs to be the easiest to maintain tanks and have never had one crash, (nor have any of the tanks I maintained for the lfs crashed). One of those tanks is a heavily fed predator display and it's been up for almost 20 years and still going strong. I do highly recommend having battery back up aerator pumps in the event of power outages however. All the necessary bio-life absolutely depends on there being oxygen in the water column so even a relatively short outage could be devastating without a battery back up aerator pump. They are a mere $20 so there is no excuse not to have one.

BryanJ · Jan 20, 2020

I let mine go a long time without cleaning it. I disturbed it one night and had two dead fish in the morning. I can't bring myself to add a shallow sand bed to my new tank I'm setting up this coming summer.

watdachuck · Jan 20, 2020

I put other, which really means "False" unless you have a situation where a nutrient heavy substrate is suddenly and aggressively disturbed causing tank parameters to change quickly. This could easily send a tank into a downward spiral if not caught and remedied as it was happening.

Benray4fun · Jan 20, 2020

I clean the top layer whenever the sand accumulates anything by attaching the gravel cleaner to the inlet of the canister filter.
Never have to worry about the water level dropping or being pressed for time as the canister filters & returns the water...."that saves me time & money every time, plus the tanks sand looks great. Something to consider if you have a sandbed...

sp1187 · Jan 20, 2020

Couldn't vac my sand bed if I wanted to, which I don't. scape design prevents any meaningful access if I was so inclined.
plenty of critters in the sandbed to take care of it.
Some have stated power outage being a concern. I put in a whole house generator before tank start up.
I'm up and running 15 seconds after any power outage, auto start up.

Daniel76 · Jan 20, 2020

TheHarold · Jan 20, 2020

Daniel76 said:
Can we have a forum that if we subscribe to it will block this clickbait trash?
Cos the only one I know of is the 'unsubscribe' button..........

erm, don’t think so. I was kidding around.

Though ***in theory** one can just block the poster if you don’t like the content. Should have the same effect

Daniel76 · Jan 20, 2020

ScottB · Jan 20, 2020

Bret Brinkmann said:
How long does your livestock sit in the cloudy water?

My ceriths keep my sand clean of algea, at least at the surface. My DSB is 4" and has been up for about 4 years now. Never cleaned it. Needed to a few times in the beginning, then I got the ceriths. The growths down deeper I call future cerith food. It's like having an algae scrubber in your sand bed that the snails clean for you. Below is a link to my sand pics. I know the tank doesn't look good right now. It's an algae haven due to some recent necessary neglect, but the sand is clean.

Snails & conchs that keep sandbeds clean.

I see a lot of posts involving sandbeds with diatom, cyanobacteria, and green hair algae in large patches or that completely taken over. I wanted to demonstrate an easy and fun way to reduce and possibly completely eliminate these nuisances from a sandbed. Snails and conchs can be a highly...

www.reef2reef.com

I keep flow running while I blast the sand and pump out most of the water (until the MP40s suck air). The fish all hide. The sticks slime up. LPS largely seem to like it. I'd say the water is mostly clear 25 minutes after the blasting.