Should I Sypon My Sand?

[Animal King]

My sand Isn't to dirty but I wanted to know if I should sypon my sand bed when I do my water changes weekly? Ive heard that their are beneficial organisms in the sand bed so I shouldn't sypon it and ive heard other things about how I should sypon my sand bed. Whats everyone's thoughts? Thanks

 

[willtheld]

I've started to the past 6 months and have noticed a huge upturn in my tank and corals.

 

[Steelheader09]

Personally, I dont. I let my nassarius snails handle it. However, I don't see it actually causing harm if you do it.

 

[Viking_Reefing]

I’m a firm believe in keeping your sandbed clean. I have a bunch of nassarius snails, sand sifting starfish and a goby and o still suck up a bunch of crud when I siphon it.

 

[SPR1968]

I’ve never siphoned the sand in either of my tanks, it forms part of the overall biological filtration in the system

There’s nothing wrong with doing it if you prefer, as long as you don’t stir it all up and releases nutrients into the system

In my new very large system I have a diamond goby who keeps the sand bed spotless

 

[bjc451]

Search instances where a magnet fell right into a untouched sand bed and wiped out entire tanks.

 

[lilgrounchuck]

You won’t wipe any population of stuff by siphoning. If you’re worried about it you can also just blast parts of it every now and then with a turkey baster to get it into the water column so the filter removes it. You also don’t have to wait for WC by sticking the siphon hose in a filter sock in your sump and vacuuming it. You’ll pull all the solid waste out and keep it from breaking down and can leave you more time between wc due to nutrients not building up as fast from leaving everything to sit and break down.

 

[JoshO]

You won’t wipe any population of stuff by siphoning. If you’re worried about it you can also just blast parts of it every now and then with a turkey baster to get it into the water column so the filter removes it. You also don’t have to wait for WC by sticking the siphon hose in a filter sock in your sump and vacuuming it. You’ll pull all the solid waste out and keep it from breaking down and can leave you more time between wc due to nutrients not building up as fast from leaving everything to sit and break down.

This is great advice, if it's the first time you're doing it I'd perhaps do it with a water change, and maybe only do about 25% of the sandbed each time, but once it becomes routine then doing it through the sock is a great way of doing. Your love rock and filter media (if you have some) should house more than enough bacteria

 

[Waters]

How long has the sandbed been left undisturbed and how deep is the sandbed?

 

[vlangel]

My tank had 3 tiers of sand levels and is integral to the rockscape. As a result I have never syphoned the sand although I do stir up the lowest level which is only 1" deep. The other levels are 4" and 8" respectively so are considered deep sand beds which should not be disturbed. The tank is heavily fed and has been set up this way for over 2 years and it stays very clean. I do have nassarius snails in my cud.

 

[mfinn]

I only keep a sand bed in the 2" range and it's purely for appearance so I do vacuum it when I do water changes.
I did have a plenum tank setup ( deep sand bed with multiple layers ) a while back that a did skim just the top 1/2" or so.

 

[esther]

My sand Isn't to dirty but I wanted to know if I should sypon my sand bed when I do my water changes weekly? Ive heard that their are beneficial organisms in the sand bed so I shouldn't sypon it and ive heard other things about how I should sypon my sand bed. Whats everyone's thoughts? Thanks

I've only had our current tank for two months now. Have not syphoned our sand nor do I ever plan on ever doing it. Got a great CUC that does it for me.

 

[BullyBee]

I always vacuum my sand and will when I set up my first FOWLR next month

 

[Ultra Aquatics]

For me it depends on the sand type...when I had smaller grain sand I wouldn’t vacuum it since it’s so fine your going to be sucking up all the sand as well. I personally use larger grain Tropic Eden Reef Flakes and vacuum it occasionally.

 

[MJV15]

Would you clean out your kitty litter box?
I clean my sand beds in quarters with each water change. Which I do based off of WWC and how they handle their few tanks that do have sand. Also based off of multiple BRS recommendations.

 

[Blknovass]

Unless you are running a DSB you should be cleaning it.

 

[Vette67]

There are 2 ways to look at the sand bed. First is that it is a dirt magnet that needs to be cleaned. And if that’s how you approach it, then yes, cleaning is part of your maintenance.

The second way is to view the sandbed as an integral, living, breathing part of your filtration system. I subscribe to the second school of thought. I haven’t cleaned my sandbed in my 180 over 20 years. It is my sandbeds job to convert fish waste into DOC’s that I then filter out in other ways. Specifically, I use skimming, live rock and a large refugium with lots of chaeto that I harvest monthly. So there is more than one way to remove waste from your system. Space constraints and budget will likely dictate which method you choose.

In the end, organics need to be removed from the system, either mechanically or biologically. Both ways will work.