Sand...maintenance of Sand

[sghera64]

15 yrs of DSB (3-4”). Same sand for 15 yrs in an Oceanic 135 gal tank.

I might stir sand 2 or 3 times a year with my gloved hand or blast with a basted, but I only do less than 25% of the sand each time.

I have to dose nitrates and phosphorus or they both tank to zero.

I feed heavy - three tangs, 3 clowns, blennies, SPS and LPS with palys and mushrooms. All doing well.

 

[LMDAVE]

My tank is 8 months in and I’ve been vacuuming tbe sandbed occasionally, mainly because I’m getting a second wave of brown algae (it went away after about 3 months and stayed white) now it’s become brown again. I don’t know if vacuuming the sand is making it worse. Meaning am i removing beneficial bacteria that would be eating the algae? I feel turning the sand and burying the algae will be counterproductive. So I’m in the same boat as the OP about what is best to do. I hate being 8 months in and seeing this algae again.

 

[brandon429]

My thread shows on the last five pages people beating it by rinsing it thoroughly, not partially

It's at least handy to know others are running it and becoming uninvaded. There's no way your invasion would persist if you clean out the rocks and sand areas that harbor it, a few times in some tanks/ usually just once works.

 

[fish farmer]

15 yrs of DSB (3-4”). Same sand for 15 yrs in an Oceanic 135 gal tank.

I might stir sand 2 or 3 times a year with my gloved hand or blast with a basted, but I only do less than 25% of the sand each time.

I have to dose nitrates and phosphorus or they both tank to zero.

I feed heavy - three tangs, 3 clowns, blennies, SPS and LPS with palys and mushrooms. All doing well.

I'm curious what other maintenance you do to your tank with regard to WC and skimming, etc? I assume you have high flow in your tank due to having SPS.

 

[pdiehm]

I decided to stay bare bottom. Too many variables with sand. If you don’t clean it regularly, it’s a nutrient sink (even though I am running an algae scrubber), and with how my layout is, I can’t get to the back part of the tank to constantly stir it up.

If I could add 1/2” and never touch it, and still maintain high flow, I would consider it.

 

[reeferfoxx]

If you don’t clean it regularly, it’s a nutrient sink

I hope so! I'm tired of dosing nutrients ;Hilarious

 

[sghera64]

I'm curious what other maintenance you do to your tank with regard to WC and skimming, etc? I assume you have high flow in your tank due to having SPS.

I stopped scheduled water changes 10 months ago after I put my chaeto fuge in. I have a skimmer: sometimes I collect, other times I let the skimate flow back into the sump. I pull outside air in through the skimmer and an air pump /air stone all to keep pH around 8.2-8.3. I use both a kalk reactor (w/ HOAc dosing) and a CO2/"Calcium" reactor.

I dose Ca(NO3)2 and Na3PO4 to avoid ULNS. I dose I2 and Fe weekly. Don't laugh, but my Fe is currently just GFO dissolved in HCl. It's not chelated, so it is probably precipitating out mostly. I notice that the I2 dosing (and strontium) seem to spur on coraline algae growth.

The 135 gal DT is connected to two Rubbermaid frag "bins" for a total system volume around 180 gal. The frag tanks are both "bare bottom", but have a lot of detritus and tend to grow a bit of GHA. I just started to add Vibrant at 4x the "lite" dose. That is, I dose 2x / week instead of 1 dose e/o week.

Lighting is 2 SB Reeflights SBox 32" WiFi and 4x3foot T5's. Par is about 130 on bottom and 350 near top (Apogee 510).

Return pump is an Iwaki MD30 - that under feeds both the DT and frag tanks (in series). I might get 2 tank turns per hour.

Recirc pumps are:

• 2 Jebao RW-20 in the DT
• 1 Jebao RW-8 in each of the frag bins

I keep the RW-20's at about 40% with opposing on/off cycles in the DT. Good flow, but not great. It does not stir up the sand, but it will cause and occasional "swirl-up". There is an orange spotted sleeper goby stirring parts of the tank (6 months on one end, then he moves to the other for months). I have a Kole tang that "nips" at the sand occasionally.

My sand is over 15 years old. Many of the grains seem to have "shrunk" and are almost like powdered sugar. They get stirred up easily and the goby and make the water hazy when he "goes at it". If I blast the sand with a baster or pump, it gets cloudy for an hour or so.

I don't clean the two sumps (2 x 20gal fish tanks in series). I clean the skimmer body/cup about 1-2 times per month. I don't "blast the rocks".

I mag clean the glass every 2 or 3 days unless I'm dosing vinegar (like now), then its every 4-6 days. I think the vinegar drives up the bacterial action (along with the Vibrant). Since adding Vibrant (and vinegar) for the past 2 weeks, my GHA is starting to dwindle and lose its hold. I'm going to cut back (or cease the HOAc/Vibrant), if I see a decline in the macro algae (chaeto & ulva).


That's my maintenance. Is there anything I left out? (Food: mostly Formula 1 flakes, but frozen 1-2 times / week).

 

[Michael Llabona]

So I have about 1/2 in sand bed in my 10g nuvo office tank. I don't do anything at all for maintenance on it. I got a clown, sexy shrimp, and a few trochus snails. I also started with established live rock with a ton of pods. I think the combo keeps my tank super clean. I may only scrape my glass once a month. I have no algae problems at all. I may do a water change once a month. I'm the exception not the rule. Just sharing my experience.

 

[Cujo#31]

+1 on the diamond goby (or orange spot). I have one in my 160 display and he keeps my sand pristine. By far and away the busiest fish in my tank. The 2 drawbacks are that I always have a certain amount of suspended sediment, but that is 2 fold, as if he was not stirring it up the sediment would build up in the sand. Also, anything I have placed in the sand, he insists on digging under, and in the process he either buries that piece, or dumps the sand on the neighboring piece. I stumbled upon a nice little fix for that though. Build a small pedestal (I use chunks of acrylic) and put 1"- 1 1/2" acrylic rods under the pedestal to suspend it off the sandbed so that he can easily borrow under the piece to find his snacks or satisfy his curiosity. Ever since I did that, I no longer have sand mountains all over the place. He still likes to stockpile a mound by the rock work for his sleeping burrow, but I know his habits now and avoid placing anything where he likes to stockpile sand.
This little guy, IMO is a MUST HAVE if you want to keep a sandbed. It might mean you have to pass on certain other gobies, unless you can add them either simultaneously or from passive to aggressive, but this guy does have a reputation for aggression. I'm good with that. It's a compromise I'm happy to make because the benefits outweigh the drawbacks significantly.

 

[pdiehm]

i have gone back and forth on it. I've always had a problem with nutrients, even with the algae scrubber, not sure sand would be a good idea.

 

[hart24601]

I support the BB, especially when I read SPS tank. Sure you can have sand, just be sure to put in the work to keep it clean! However you can put LPS on the bottom glass fine, but if you really want SPS then put them on the bottom, you can do that with BB and powerheads.


I personally believe that flow is just so important particularly for sps that I would never recommend sand for a sps tank unless someone really is set on sand. Less work + better flow is a win for me. I do like sand and critters but I would make a softie tank or part of a display fuge if I went that route.


I have helped out locally with several tanks that did great for a year or two, and now their SPS start to RTN. Most of the time they have corals almost covering their sand bed and in every case when we siphoned out some water from the relatively shallow sad bed it stank, really bad. This has happened at least a half dozen times over the past few years and once they see the sand they either remove it/clean it/make it more accessible and the issues stop. Yes if they would have kept it clean there wouldn’t be an issue, but it can be more of a chore than some want and get hard as the tank fills in.

 

[brandon429]

That's what I see 9 times out of ten, agreed. true balance denitrification, where rot does not outpace nitrate outgassing, happens never. 1%

or it happens on paper, but is overwhelmed with the constant input so we can't actually measure it.

regarding people that must add nutrients, I see that with sandbed and no sandbed, and, I see that based on a lot of one off testing as well. we have threads collected where two diff nitrate kits were 50 ppm apart

for people who have a full complement of fish, feeding, corals, anems and sand who still have to add nutrients so they don't register zero nitrate, removing sand isn't going to fix that by adding nitrate back. the sand isn't the swing vote in those tanks, and Im curious to see how some of the reported measures were verified. tons are api or red sea only, and those are the two that ranged so greatly in our test variance collections.

 

[brandon429]

anyone who is going to be sandbed diving in the future / ideal to take the muck water, decant it off in a cup till its really thick, let that sit for three days aerated and topped off to .023 or thereabouts, and then run two nitrate tests on it at 36 hours. I bet its sky high legit.

 

[pdiehm]

I support the BB, especially when I read SPS tank. Sure you can have sand, just be sure to put in the work to keep it clean! However you can put LPS on the bottom glass fine, but if you really want SPS then put them on the bottom, you can do that with BB and powerheads.


I personally believe that flow is just so important particularly for sps that I would never recommend sand for a sps tank unless someone really is set on sand. Less work + better flow is a win for me. I do like sand and critters but I would make a softie tank or part of a display fuge if I went that route.


I have helped out locally with several tanks that did great for a year or two, and now their SPS start to RTN. Most of the time they have corals almost covering their sand bed and in every case when we siphoned out some water from the relatively shallow sad bed it stank, really bad. This has happened at least a half dozen times over the past few years and once they see the sand they either remove it/clean it/make it more accessible and the issues stop. Yes if they would have kept it clean there wouldn’t be an issue, but it can be more of a chore than some want and get hard as the tank fills in.

Correct. I coach youth sports, and when I get home, I want to feed my fish every other day. I toss in a 1/2” piece of LrS and let the fish have at it. I typically go to bed about 30-45 minutes later. The last thing I want to do is stir sand...and while it’s not time consuming, it’s not hands off.

I have found that the less my hands mess around in the tank, the better it works.

 

[JMetaxas]

I have a Diamond Goby and 3 Nassarius Snails and together they keep my 2" sanded in good shape.

 

[mtraylor]

Go deep or dont go at all.