Stir Sand - should I ?

[Johnic]

I was wondering if moving the sand around maybe the first 1/2 - 1" or so is wise. I have a fine sand and about a 2 inch sand bed on avg.

 

[Spare time]

Why do you want to?

 

[vetteguy53081]

I was wondering if moving the sand around maybe the first 1/2 - 1" or so is wise. I have a fine sand and about a 2 inch sand bed on avg.

No- you disturb the bacteria in the bedding, cloud up your tank and risk elevating nitrate levels. You can safely spot siphon the surface of sand

 

[Johnic]

Why do you want to?

Loosen some of the potential detris and get it into the water column to remove.

 

[Spare time]

Loosen some of the potential detris and get it into the water column to remove.

Eh I would only do it with something like a siphon to clean out the debris while doing it. It's much better to get things that clean the sandbed than to have to do it yourself. I don't touch my sandbed but I have critters that constantly clean the upper layer

 

[Johnic]

No- you disturb the bacteria in the bedding, cloud up your tank and risk elevating nitrate levels. You can safely spot siphon the surface of sand

So I have a pile of sand distributed in one area because of the powerhead...should I leave it or re-distribute it and level the sand out. I know it will happen again ?

 

[Onixom]

I was wondering if moving the sand around maybe the first 1/2 - 1" or so is wise. I have a fine sand and about a 2 inch sand bed on avg.

I think if you have nassarius snails you wont have many (if any at all) food decay pockets in your sand. If you stir it it will cloud up your tank

 

[fodsod]

If you're vacuuming your sand bed to clean then you'll be moving the top 1/4-1/2 around already. If you're not vacuuming regularly then only do a small area every few days to reduce what's released into your water column. Then once you've got it all cleaned you can just add that to your water change routine.

Is there a specific reason you're wanting to stir up the sand?

 

[Idech]

You either do it regularly or you don’t at all (it will release anaerobic bacteria that will die and cause an ammonia spike, which can kill your fish).

Regularly means every few weeks. If you’ve never done it all and really want to start, do tiny sections at a time. Really tiny.

 

[vetteguy53081]

So I have a pile of sand distributed in one area because of the powerhead...should I leave it or re-distribute it and level the sand out. I know it will happen again ?

Redistribute...... and elevate the angle do it doesnt blow towards sand.

 

[Johnic]

If you're vacuuming your sand bed to clean then you'll be moving the top 1/4-1/2 around already. If you're not vacuuming regularly then only do a small area every few days to reduce what's released into your water column. Then once you've got it all cleaned you can just add that to your water change routine.

Is there a specific reason you're wanting to stir up the sand?

Just to release any detris and re-distribute the sand that is gathered from the powerhead.

 

[kevgib67]

As mentioned previously, add nassarius snails, conches and a sand sifting goby and what you want to accomplish is done with no work from you. You’ll have crystal clear sand.

 

[LPS Bum]

I do it weekly with a turkey baster. Keeps the sand clean and white. Then I let my ReefMat pull it out.

But I do this every week, so nothing really nasty ever comes out of it. I have sugar sand, so I can’t siphon it. This approach works well for me. Your mileage may vary.

 

[fodsod]

Add a Diamond watchman Goby and you'll never vacuum your sand again.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

I never touched my sand.

 

[jda]

I would not stir up the sand.

I do agree that it can accumulate benign gunk that needs to be removed, but gravel vacuum is a much better approach since it leaves the tank and does not get everywhere. I don't care how much filtration that you have, you are not getting out all of the junk if you just stir it up. You can get out nearly 100% of it with a vacuum once you get good at it.

For me, this is the part that Dr. Ron missed in his DSB career. That gunk can gum up the works, keep water and critters from moving freely about the sand and it needs to be removed. About every 4 years, I like to vacuum about 25% of my sand ever 3-4 months. Spreading this work out allows 75% of the oxic and anoxic zones to stay established while you clean 25% and also allows for time for that new zone to establish again.

I vacuum the sand all the way down to the bottom.

I have sugar sand - you can vacuum it. Mixed size is better, though.

 

[Dan_P]

I was wondering if moving the sand around maybe the first 1/2 - 1" or so is wise. I have a fine sand and about a 2 inch sand bed on avg.

I don’t recall any experiments (@taricha?) that clarify the effects of disturbing the sand except in the extreme for a technique known as “rip cleaning”. The situation might support the notion to do what you think is right for your aquarium but stop when it isn’t

The only thing I do with my sand is to add some when the level seems to have dropped so that my sand sifting star can completely bury itself to feed over an area of about 10-20 sea star diameters (That is what the size is not what science teaches us to do).

 

[EeyoreIsMySpiritAnimal]

I would not stir up the sand.

I do agree that it can accumulate benign gunk that needs to be removed, but gravel vacuum is a much better approach since it leaves the tank and does not get everywhere. I don't care how much filtration that you have, you are not getting out all of the junk if you just stir it up. You can get out nearly 100% of it with a vacuum once you get good at it.

For me, this is the part that Dr. Ron missed in his DSB career. That gunk can gum up the works, keep water and critters from moving freely about the sand and it needs to be removed. About every 4 years, I like to vacuum about 25% of my sand ever 3-4 months. Spreading this work out allows 75% of the oxic and anoxic zones to stay established while you clean 25% and also allows for time for that new zone to establish again.

I vacuum the sand all the way down to the bottom.

I have sugar sand - you can vacuum it. Mixed size is better, though.

What gravel vac do you use? Looking for a new one.

 

[jda]

I have one that might be older than my college-aged kids. It is 20 to 24 inches so that the fine sand has a chance to fall back down.

 

[taricha]

I don’t recall any experiments (@taricha?) that clarify the effects of disturbing the sand

Here's a couple of tidbits on things about my sand that might affect whether or how I would decide to stir it.
one: my sandbed porewater has significantly higher PO4 than my tank water.
one of my meaurements in 2020, "Porewater PO4: two samples = 0.74 and 0.68. Tank water 0.11 ppm"

two: my sandbed porewater has H2S in some amount in it. It has very low ORP, and a sulfurous smell.

Here's a quick and dirty little n=2 test that may fill in some blanks.

water bottle filled with tank water ~500mL
suck up grunge from .5"-1.5" down in the sand from a few locations in the sand. One bottle got ~15mL. Second bottle twice as much ~30mL of grungy sandbed water.
swirl the grunge in the bottle. Measure a minute or two later. (These ratios in the bottles might be close to what I'd get if I stirred my entire sandbed.)

dissolved O2:
bottle1: 95% of max O2 -> 90%
bottle2: 93% -> 84%

ORP:
bottle 1: drop of ~70mV
bottle 2: drop of ~200 mV, ORP went negative

Smell:
bottle 1: nothing I noticed
bottle 2: sulfur smell right at the bottle opening. nothing elsewhere.

So I think that I won't mix my sandbed except in very small doses.