Removing gunk between sand bed and glass??

[fox0521]

How do you go about cleaning the glass below the sand bed? I have always been told “don’t disturb your sand bed, it could wreak havoc on your system”. Well, I have seen some darn good FTS that most definitely do not have this nasty build up between the sand and the glass that I have! I just set up a 125 gallon system and I am already starting to see it there too. I use a mag cleaner to keep my aquarium walls clean, can I use this as long as I’m careful not to catch sand in it and scratch the glass/acrylic? It’s important to note that I will not be able to reach down far enough into my 125 gallon with my hand, so I will either need a long tool, or a magnetic tool.

Tips and tricks are appreciated!!!

 

[brandon429]

Dont start stick stirring till after this

120 gallon rip clean

I’ve decided to perform a rip clean on my 120 with 100% new water. The tank has been running for 5 years and was battling Dino for several months. I used the bacteria method from elegant corals and worked great I haven’t seen Dino in months now. But I tried several other methods including...

www.reef2reef.com

then start stick stirring or experimenting with fish that move it

have a clean bed before disturbing it

what they said about disturbing the sandbed is wrong, you have to take the entire tank apart to do it safely which is ironic.

stir up within the tank and you’ll get a six month dinos cyano gha invasion.

*most will not do disassembly cleaning it’s too hard. In that case you’ll need to keep it as is, add a fish to stir it and your tank becomes invaded by April. the rocks, the sand, the glass, covered in an offending growth if you mix up waste.

your sand cross section doesn’t look lethal and full of waste, some are. I didn’t list killing your whole reef if you vacuumed up the waste because your cross section doesn’t look bad and dark colored, that happens when some sandbeds are disturbed in tank.


but to take a reef apart, clean its sand like above, has zero losses on file it just takes a lot of work. The price of having a deep sand bed in a large display tank is just beginning.

if you do nothing, I bet that reef works perfectly another three years.

 

[fox0521]

Dont start stick stirring till after this

120 gallon rip clean

I’ve decided to perform a rip clean on my 120 with 100% new water. The tank has been running for 5 years and was battling Dino for several months. I used the bacteria method from elegant corals and worked great I haven’t seen Dino in months now. But I tried several other methods including...

www.reef2reef.com

then start stick stirring or experimenting with fish that move it

have a clean bed before disturbing it

what they said about disturbing the sandbed is wrong, you have to take the entire tank apart to do it safely which is ironic.

stir up within the tank and you’ll get a six month dinos cyano gha invasion.

*most will not do disassembly cleaning it’s too hard. In that case you’ll need to keep it as is, add a fish to stir it and your tank becomes invaded by April. the rocks, the sand, the glass, covered in an offending growth if you mix up waste.

your sand cross section doesn’t look lethal and full of waste, some are. I didn’t list killing your whole reef due to lack of a lot of waste, that happens when some sandbeds are disturbed in tank.


but to take a reef apart, clean its sand like above, has zero losses on file.

I have a gold head goby in my 55 gallon (1st picture). The top of the sand bed itself is pristine, it’s this stuff between the glass I hate looking at. There’s no good way to clean it, portions at a time, without disassembly??

 

[fox0521]

Dont start stick stirring till after this

120 gallon rip clean

I’ve decided to perform a rip clean on my 120 with 100% new water. The tank has been running for 5 years and was battling Dino for several months. I used the bacteria method from elegant corals and worked great I haven’t seen Dino in months now. But I tried several other methods including...

www.reef2reef.com

then start stick stirring or experimenting with fish that move it

have a clean bed before disturbing it

what they said about disturbing the sandbed is wrong, you have to take the entire tank apart to do it safely which is ironic.

stir up within the tank and you’ll get a six month dinos cyano gha invasion.

*most will not do disassembly cleaning it’s too hard. In that case you’ll need to keep it as is, add a fish to stir it and your tank becomes invaded by April. the rocks, the sand, the glass, covered in an offending growth if you mix up waste.

your sand cross section doesn’t look lethal and full of waste, some are. I didn’t list killing your whole reef if you vacuumed up the waste because your cross section doesn’t look bad and dark colored, that happens when some sandbeds are disturbed in tank.


but to take a reef apart, clean its sand like above, has zero losses on file it just takes a lot of work. The price of having a deep sand bed in a large display tank is just beginning.

if you do nothing, I bet that reef works perfectly another three years.

Or is this just part of the territory? I guess I’m seeing more tanks with shallow sand beds than I thought. I just never noticed the dirty glass on FTS of tanks with deep beds.

 

[brandon429]

You really could lightly stick stir small sections it won’t kill anything but this is tripling your organic waste load into the water, if the sand is heavy enough it can be python vacuumed like a freshwater tank that would at least be true export vs water casting

 

[brandon429]

Just like high school each reef group hangs out on a different part of the field. Here’s the stick stirring clique theyre into flock of seagulls and sticks

" MY WHITE SAND METHOD "

I've always talked about this in the fb groups because i get so many questions and compliments on my sand bed ....well here's my method....note: I've never tried this on a tank older than 3 years !!!! I'm well aware of the problems that can occur on older tanks...this is a "DAILY" method i use...

www.reef2reef.com

 

[Uncle99]

A stiff PAD, start at one end, then slowly drag across the glass moving the sand away from the glass at all times.
Lower sand by half, then this becomes easy.
It comes with deep sand bed.

 

[jmanrow]

How do you go about cleaning the glass below the sand bed? I have always been told “don’t disturb your sand bed, it could wreak havoc on your system”. Well, I have seen some darn good FTS that most definitely do not have this nasty build up between the sand and the glass that I have! I just set up a 125 gallon system and I am already starting to see it there too. I use a mag cleaner to keep my aquarium walls clean, can I use this as long as I’m careful not to catch sand in it and scratch the glass/acrylic? It’s important to note that I will not be able to reach down far enough into my 125 gallon with my hand, so I will either need a long tool, or a magnetic tool.

Tips and tricks are appreciated!!!

If my sand bed that is up against the glass becomes unsightly, I usually just run my finger along the front and side glass, wiping it clean.
If you're striving to have an active life substrate, this little bit of cleaning is not going to upset anything at all.
I strongly suggest not using a magnetic scraper below the sand level, as sand will get between the magnet and glass, and scratch the glass. As I mentioned before, running my finger below the substrate against the glass is the most effective method that I have found.

 

[Daniel92481]

How do you go about cleaning the glass below the sand bed? I have always been told “don’t disturb your sand bed, it could wreak havoc on your system”. Well, I have seen some darn good FTS that most definitely do not have this nasty build up between the sand and the glass that I have! I just set up a 125 gallon system and I am already starting to see it there too. I use a mag cleaner to keep my aquarium walls clean, can I use this as long as I’m careful not to catch sand in it and scratch the glass/acrylic? It’s important to note that I will not be able to reach down far enough into my 125 gallon with my hand, so I will either need a long tool, or a magnetic tool.

Tips and tricks are appreciated!!!

You should be able to attach a razor blade to a long “tool” and remove it that way.

 

[Poof No Eyebrows]

I use a plastic spackling trowel to scrape between the sand bed and the glass. Just do a four inch section a day. You don’t have to stir sand or vacuum just gently scrape.

 

[Azedenkae]

If my sand bed that is up against the glass becomes unsightly, I usually just run my finger along the front and side glass, wiping it clean.
If you're striving to have an active life substrate, this little bit of cleaning is not going to upset anything at all.
I strongly suggest not using a magnetic scraper below the sand level, as sand will get between the magnet and glass, and scratch the glass. As I mentioned before, running my finger below the substrate against the glass is the most effective method that I have found.

I do this too! Very effective and defo also scrubs the glass really well to clean it.

 

[ReefGeezer]

I've got a Standard 90 gallon with a couple inched of fine sand. My go-to method is to run my fingers along the glass below the sand. I'm glad the tank isn't any taller though. If it was, I'd need a snorkel. I also disturb the top of the sand regularly with a 1/4" tube just to keep it nice and white. Sand stirrers do the rest of the work.... I hope. It's still fairly new, so the effectiveness of my method remains to be seen.

 

[VolatileReeFer]

I have all sorts of clean up crew that ransacks my sandbed and I don't have dino, cyano or GHA? I have the same crap growing on my glass. I clean it with old plastic gift card. Never an issue.

 

[Karen00]

I tried my finger but couldn't get all of it. Some is stuck too hard. I have to move the sand and scrape. I'm really careful to make sure I don't get sand under the scraper. My sand bed isn't as deep as yours.