Siphoning sand bed... good or bad?
- Thread starter sredzins
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Animal Chin
Active Member
I dont clean my sand ever. Its two years old and full of critters. I keep it clean with nassarus snails and a sand sifting star. I have no water quality issues and my nitrates and phosphates are undetectable. So in my opinion you can leave it be...
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spspirate
Tidepool Explorer
Agree. I even have a dow rod that I poke the sand bed every now and then.
I remove all the sand from my dads tank every 2 months or so. I like new, white sand and the sand bed seems to accumulate a fair amount of crap. Id say your ok with just siphoning
I hope it's a small tank, that could get expensive!! I know what you mean though, new white sand is very nice.
Siphoning sand out can go both ways.
It really depends on what your goal is.
Is the sand just for looks or do you want it to also be for filtration? If the sand is dirty the odds are there is something missing...
If you just want the new sand look maybe a sifting type of creature like a star fish or I like using cherry conch? That can be costly in the long run to replace the siphoned sand...plus putting the new sand back in gives you a cloudy tank for a day or 3.
I don't touch my sand ever.
"Live like tomorrow already happened. Yesterday is only 3 days ahead. Today will be here soon."
It really depends on what your goal is.
Is the sand just for looks or do you want it to also be for filtration? If the sand is dirty the odds are there is something missing...
If you just want the new sand look maybe a sifting type of creature like a star fish or I like using cherry conch? That can be costly in the long run to replace the siphoned sand...plus putting the new sand back in gives you a cloudy tank for a day or 3.
I don't touch my sand ever.
"Live like tomorrow already happened. Yesterday is only 3 days ahead. Today will be here soon."
2yrs running here and I've never siphoned my SB. Poke at here and there, small areas at a time is all I do. If you don't want/need the benefits you get from not siphoning then siphon it
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Sent from my iPhone 4s using Tapatalk
I use a gravel vac to clean the sand bed with every weekly water change in my 5 year old 12g nano tank. I have tried leaving the SB alone for a year or two, but I've found that the health of the tank suffers eventually as the detritus builds up (nitrate and phosphate sink) since the SB no longer functions effectively. A dirty SB and clogged LR are two of the main causes of 'old tank syndrome'.
A clogged LR is one where the detritus plugs it up. Most people take a turkey baster or a small pump and force the detritus out every so often (I use a turkey baster twice a week). You'd be surprised how much waste builds up in porous LR.
leftcoastjim
New Member
"Storming"
I had someone cleaning my aquariums on a regular basis while I was away and his process was to stir the bed while doing water changes, which he called "Storming." I continued that process and have had no problems with the water quality, rock or sand. Of course I also have two Engineer Blennies, Narcissus Snails, pods and other critters so the sand bed never really gets that dirty. I don't think I would siphon the sand, there is too much life in there. I don't even really like trimming back my refugium with all the sea life that lives in the macro algae. But it must be done, I just pick it out and put it back in the refugium.
I had someone cleaning my aquariums on a regular basis while I was away and his process was to stir the bed while doing water changes, which he called "Storming." I continued that process and have had no problems with the water quality, rock or sand. Of course I also have two Engineer Blennies, Narcissus Snails, pods and other critters so the sand bed never really gets that dirty. I don't think I would siphon the sand, there is too much life in there. I don't even really like trimming back my refugium with all the sea life that lives in the macro algae. But it must be done, I just pick it out and put it back in the refugium.
navila06
Well-Known Member
If you have good flow getting in the habit of stirring it every week will help keep it clean
No such thing as Old Tank Syndrome. It's called a mature tank
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Flameback Pair
started reefing 1999
There was a guy on a different site that had a tiger tail sea cucumber. It ate dirty sand and pooped clean sand. I ordered one from LA and the shipment got mixed up. It was a two night delivery instead of overnight delivery. I doubled the acclimation time like they asked me to and the next morning it was gone. I waited a few days for it to poke out its little head and no show. After about two weeks I had enough and tore apart my rockwork and he was nowhere to be found. I think it was DOA and my emerald crab drug it behind a rock and ate it. I think I will make a second attempt on one as soon as they are in stock again.
