krash7172
Well-Known Member
The top of my tank is over 6ft tall so for me to stir the sand I need a ladder and it is a pain. Are there any tools or equipment that will help do this without having to reach down inside the tank?
Substrate cleaning tools
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Girthrockwel
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Scuba gear? How big is your tank?
I've never stired my sand I didn't know that you had to but I do have astrea snail's and they help to airate the sand from what my lfs told me. So is that why you stir the sand to airate the sand or what??
Controversial subject.
In the 90s nobody messed w sand, there are still holdover practices from that era of tank keeping, some staunch in the matter.
Ff 2017
People have problems with nitrate so they dose carbon, or set up algae filters, because sand is causing nitrate for many, it's not reducing it like 90s promised. Happens in aging tanks, and smaller ones are more obvious
Large tanks have dilutions that keep probs at bay for years usually.
For every thousand sandbeds, two reduce nitrate, 998 cause the reefer to take permanent reaction forever to counterbalance something that wasn't supposed to need counterbalance.
It's for waste removal. Sandbed animals inject poop into the bed, they add to problems. Nothing the 998 do will make their sandbeds not part of their tank bioloading. The way we know a sandbed is filthy is when we reach in and grab sand and drop it; it usually clouds massively. We can either ignore that or not.
Some sandbeds have gobies or others that quickly turnover sand causing waste to well up where filters remove it, that's helpful. Snails don't and crabs and worms don't, they add to problems though 90s reading material says they don't pellet makers they are, poops go right into the bed and sink down and accumulate. Nobody would have changed sandbed course the last twenty years if the nineties were correct.
our balances aren't like the ocean regarding dilution and waste reserves
A big tanker can likely ignore waste compounding for years and have no problems. Many will report zero nitrates, that's why very few agree on what to do with sandbed waste. Each decade holds different trends
In nano reefing, we know dirty sandbeds will kill a tank, and we have our community rinsing the heck out of living sandbeds and in turn the lifespans of our mini models are increasing massively.
Can we find a single nano reef where no sandbed has been changed in twenty years? Sure. An outlier always exists. The masses do not reef best that way... low invasion conditions are attained in a more repeatable manner setup over clean sandbeds. feel free to post here ten year plus nano reefs that do not ever touch the bed, ratio of cleaners to non cleaners 10:1 if it's even possible to locate ten ten year old nano reefs worldwide.
Most nowadays just proactively stir and siphon out waste like first post, it's a form of action taking to avoid waste buildup. Large tankers don't have lots of options. Nano reefers usually do that, or in my case I just rinse the whole bed out a few times a year to be waste free.
There are always outliers to any practice so no one way is correct. My sandbed is kept perfectly clean of waste, and in so, is immune to old tank syndrome, my constant offsetting of it as a diaper, and the whole aquarium has no biological lifespan limit solely due to no tank diaper.
Lastly, remote sandbeds (Search out a few on here) are opposite of everying typed
because they're not up under display tank fish pooping on them forever.
We were just talking recently in the Harvey hurricane post that dirty sandbeds are the greatest tank liability one can have in a power outage setting. They'll sap the whole system of oxygen faster than any arrangement we could use, old sandbeds allow for no error, clean sandbeds are neutral/inert and harmless.
After twenty years of proposed hands off sandbedding, we still have to correct that condition in tank rescue threads commonly.
After twenty years of clean sandbedding, not anything will have to be rescued it just stinks to have to manually do the job. Where is my George jetson I robot sand vac
Sandbeds 2017
B
In the 90s nobody messed w sand, there are still holdover practices from that era of tank keeping, some staunch in the matter.
Ff 2017
People have problems with nitrate so they dose carbon, or set up algae filters, because sand is causing nitrate for many, it's not reducing it like 90s promised. Happens in aging tanks, and smaller ones are more obvious
Large tanks have dilutions that keep probs at bay for years usually.
For every thousand sandbeds, two reduce nitrate, 998 cause the reefer to take permanent reaction forever to counterbalance something that wasn't supposed to need counterbalance.
It's for waste removal. Sandbed animals inject poop into the bed, they add to problems. Nothing the 998 do will make their sandbeds not part of their tank bioloading. The way we know a sandbed is filthy is when we reach in and grab sand and drop it; it usually clouds massively. We can either ignore that or not.
Some sandbeds have gobies or others that quickly turnover sand causing waste to well up where filters remove it, that's helpful. Snails don't and crabs and worms don't, they add to problems though 90s reading material says they don't pellet makers they are, poops go right into the bed and sink down and accumulate. Nobody would have changed sandbed course the last twenty years if the nineties were correct.
our balances aren't like the ocean regarding dilution and waste reserves
A big tanker can likely ignore waste compounding for years and have no problems. Many will report zero nitrates, that's why very few agree on what to do with sandbed waste. Each decade holds different trends
In nano reefing, we know dirty sandbeds will kill a tank, and we have our community rinsing the heck out of living sandbeds and in turn the lifespans of our mini models are increasing massively.
Can we find a single nano reef where no sandbed has been changed in twenty years? Sure. An outlier always exists. The masses do not reef best that way... low invasion conditions are attained in a more repeatable manner setup over clean sandbeds. feel free to post here ten year plus nano reefs that do not ever touch the bed, ratio of cleaners to non cleaners 10:1 if it's even possible to locate ten ten year old nano reefs worldwide.
Most nowadays just proactively stir and siphon out waste like first post, it's a form of action taking to avoid waste buildup. Large tankers don't have lots of options. Nano reefers usually do that, or in my case I just rinse the whole bed out a few times a year to be waste free.
There are always outliers to any practice so no one way is correct. My sandbed is kept perfectly clean of waste, and in so, is immune to old tank syndrome, my constant offsetting of it as a diaper, and the whole aquarium has no biological lifespan limit solely due to no tank diaper.
Lastly, remote sandbeds (Search out a few on here) are opposite of everying typed
because they're not up under display tank fish pooping on them forever.
We were just talking recently in the Harvey hurricane post that dirty sandbeds are the greatest tank liability one can have in a power outage setting. They'll sap the whole system of oxygen faster than any arrangement we could use, old sandbeds allow for no error, clean sandbeds are neutral/inert and harmless.
After twenty years of proposed hands off sandbedding, we still have to correct that condition in tank rescue threads commonly.
After twenty years of clean sandbedding, not anything will have to be rescued it just stinks to have to manually do the job. Where is my George jetson I robot sand vac
Sandbeds 2017
B
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krash7172
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I am used to larger gravel as a fresh water guy. I see why a basic siphon wont work with sand. As an experiment, I tried cutting the bottom off a plastic water bottle. Push the open bottom end into the sand, plug the top with your finger and lift. Works great. You can control how deep you clean too 
GoVols
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Welcome to Reef 2 Reef and hope you feel at home.
Buy one of these "Pythons" and as you can see, you can get different tube "Extension" lengths.
To use it in a sand bed, just punch the tube in the sand bed and if the sand rises too high then just pull the tube out of the sand.
Will take no time to get the hang of it and it will bring your detritus out of the sand bed and down the sink.
http://www.pythonproducts.com/products.html
It does the sand thing for sand and been using it since the 80's.
I use a gravel rake purchased at Petco/Petsmart and a turkey baster. I stir real well making the tank cloudy as heck, then rely on the rollermat to filter out the crap.
Joshua Hurst
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maybe buy a long piece of foldable strong metal/aluminum, that way you can reach where you want. I'm sure someone sells it somewhere lol
GoVols
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(lol)
Get some Diamond Goby's
Get some Diamond Goby's
dmw913
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I use a length of solid acrylic rod to stir up sand or push things around without putting my hand in the tank.
However, my sand stays clean primarily by two gobies and a pistol shrimp who really like to play dumptrucks and "steal the frag". I also maintain a rather shallow sandbed to avoid significant buildup.
However, my sand stays clean primarily by two gobies and a pistol shrimp who really like to play dumptrucks and "steal the frag". I also maintain a rather shallow sandbed to avoid significant buildup.
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krash7172
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I love the diversity of answers. And I also love how everyone has a different setup. When I got into this, I got info that was buy this, do that, buy that, do this. My tank is still lightly stocked so I can play without too much risk. I made a tool in 5 mins that is something like a toilet plunger. I can turn over my accessible sand in minutes. Push down and it does nothing, pull up and it will pull sand from as far down as you pushed.
Joshua Hurst
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TRUE those guys will do 100% of the work for you. + their the coolest fish you can have(lol)
Get some Diamond Goby's
(Im bias)
Joshua Hurst
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careful with rock work if you have any
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krash7172
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