Sand bed screw up?

grr410 · Oct 23, 2023

Been fighting Cyanobacteria now for a few months and started to siphon it off my sand bed. Tonight I ended up siphoning about half my sand trying to get a lot of the Cyanobacteria off the sand bed and now I am reading that this much disruption in my sand bed can cause major issues. Should I be concerned? Any suggestions on what to do? Or am I just freaking out for no reason.

Tank is Red Sea Reefer 200XL

EeyoreIsMySpiritAnimal · Oct 23, 2023

grr410 said:
Been fighting Cyanobacteria now for a few months and started to siphon it off my sand bed. Tonight I ended up siphoning about half my sand trying to get a lot of the Cyanobacteria off the sand bed and now I am reading that this much disruption in my sand bed can cause major issues. Should I be concerned? Any suggestions on what to do? Or am I just freaking out for no reason.

Tank is Red Sea Reefer 200XL

There's not a lot you can do now. The main problem with removing a large portion of the sand at one time is the possiblity of stirring up/releasing anaerobic pockets that may have formed.
Is your water cloudy?

Idech · Oct 23, 2023

How old is your tank ?

shakacuz · Oct 23, 2023

is your tank matured? what’s your bioload? what skimmer?

grr410 · Oct 23, 2023

Tank is a year old.
bio load is 2 clowns, eibli angel, melanarus wrasse, fire shrimp, pistol shrimp
bunch of corals mostly zoas, torches, hammers and my CUC

grr410 · Oct 23, 2023

Skimmer is Nyos 120

EeyoreIsMySpiritAnimal · Oct 23, 2023

EeyoreIsMySpiritAnimal said:
Is your water cloudy?

????

grr410 · Oct 23, 2023

Water was a little cloudy seems to be clearing now

EeyoreIsMySpiritAnimal · Oct 23, 2023

grr410 said:
Water was a little cloudy seems to be clearing now

Sounds like a pretty shallow sand bed (or I would expect more cloudiness). You can run some carbon and add an air stone for a day or two just to be safe, but if the fish look ok (not breathing fast, not hanging out at the surface) you're probably fine.

grr410 · Oct 23, 2023

EeyoreIsMySpiritAnimal said:
Sounds like a pretty shallow sand bed (or I would expect more cloudiness). You can run some carbon and add an air stone for a day or two just to be safe, but if the fish look ok (not breathing fast, not hanging out at the surface) you're probably fine.

Yeah I run carbon anyway. Just checked looks clear and fish look healthy. I’ll test tomorrow but it seems ok for now.

grr410 · Oct 24, 2023

So I checked today and all the cyno came back in the sandbed.... what do you do to clean it out and prevent it from coming back? Im stuck here on this.... any help is appreciated.

EeyoreIsMySpiritAnimal · Oct 24, 2023

grr410 said:
So I checked today and all the cyno came back in the sandbed.... what do you do to clean it out and prevent it from coming back? Im stuck here on this.... any help is appreciated.

Parameters? Age of tank?

grr410 · Oct 24, 2023

EeyoreIsMySpiritAnimal said:
Parameters? Age of tank?

Checking now just got home and saw.

grr410 · Oct 24, 2023

Tank is about a year old. Just did some testing…. Noticed phosphates are higher than normal.

Phosphate 0.10 …. Avg over past month is .03
Nitrate 9.7
Alk 8.6
Salinity 1.024

Dronereef · Oct 24, 2023

Diamond Goby keeps my sand spotless.

CBonito · Feb 15, 2024

Dronereef said:
Diamond Goby keeps my sand spotless.

I'm a believer as well. They're awesome.

Roatan Reef · Feb 15, 2024

CBonito said:
I'm a believer as well. They're awesome.

Dronereef said:
Diamond Goby keeps my sand spotless.

1000%

Roatan Reef · Feb 15, 2024

grr410 said:
So I checked today and all the cyno came back in the sandbed.... what do you do to clean it out and prevent it from coming back? Im stuck here on this.... any help is appreciated.

grr410 said:
Been fighting Cyanobacteria now for a few months and started to siphon it off my sand bed. Tonight I ended up siphoning about half my sand trying to get a lot of the Cyanobacteria off the sand bed and now I am reading that this much disruption in my sand bed can cause major issues. Should I be concerned? Any suggestions on what to do? Or am I just freaking out for no reason.

Tank is Red Sea Reefer 200XL

EeyoreIsMySpiritAnimal said:
There's not a lot you can do now. The main problem with removing a large portion of the sand at one time is the possiblity of stirring up/releasing anaerobic pockets that may have formed.
Is your water cloudy?

grr410 said:
Tank is a year old.
bio load is 2 clowns, eibli angel, melanarus wrasse, fire shrimp, pistol shrimp
bunch of corals mostly zoas, torches, hammers and my CUC

Step 1 .

Thoroughly clean Sand Bed.

Step 2.

Add Caribsea CoraLine Gravel (it's basically larger crushed coral chunks.

Step 3.

Get a bag of TBS Live Sand (Tampa Bay Saltwater) @LiverockRocks
And mix accordingly. You will have a nice mix of fine, chunky and live sand with all types of good stuff for your tank, and believe me, your tank will love it.