What I Am Doing Instead of Water Changes

[reeftankdude]

I have a few fish, crabs, and about twenty snails in a 20 gallon high tank. I have no corals at this time. I like to swiftly move a wooden spoon over the substrate and rock to get detritus and etc into the water column. I then place a HOB with a 50 micron polishing cloth into the tank. I also swim a fish net in the water to catch the big stuff. I am dosing Kent Nano Reef A and B. My filtration is activated carbon. Is anyone else doing this to keep your tank clean instead of water changes, and what has been the results? Thanks all

 

[MoshJosh]

I do about 33% water change weekly (2.5 gallons), but I use a similar method to yours for my substrate. I use a metal aquascaping tool to stir the substrate before water change then run fine mechanical filter for a few hours after I turn the pumps back on. So similar to your method, but I am changing water.

 

[blaxsun]

With my system I leave the sand bed alone entirely, run 4x 100-micron sock filters (changed every 2-2.5 days), Nyos Zeo and Carbon/GFO reactors, several MarinePure 8x8x4" bio bricks and two boxes of 1.5" bio-spheres, a great Nyos protein skimmer and 57-watt UV sterilizer. I dose daily and supplement with a variety of trace elements and coral food. Fish are fed 6-8x daily with a mix of frozen, variety of pellets and seaweed.

I have 34 fish at last count and a cleaning crew that numbers well over 120 snails, hermits, crabs, cucumbers, etc.

I have less maintenance, little to no algae and top up RO and saltwater only as needed. So far everything is healthy, thriving and disease-free.

 

[reeftankdude]

With my system I leave the sand bed alone entirely, run 4x 100-micron sock filters (changed every 2-2.5 days), Nyos Zeo and Carbon/GFO reactors, several MarinePure 8x8x4" bio bricks and two boxes of 1.5" bio-spheres, a great Nyos protein skimmer and 57-watt UV sterilizer. I dose daily and supplement with a variety of trace elements and coral food. Fish are fed 6-8x daily with a mix of frozen, variety of pellets and seaweed.

I have 34 fish at last count and a cleaning crew that numbers well over 120 snails, hermits, crabs, cucumbers, etc.

I have less maintenance, little to no algae and top up RO and saltwater only as needed. So far everything is healthy, thriving and disease-free.

Why do you leave the sand bed alone, bacteria? Thanks

 

[Koh23]

Depends of sand thickness, if this is decorative thin layer, then its ok to vacum it, or stir, or blow.....

If sand bed is thicker than 1" (someone says 2"), then its a bad idea to disturb lower levels of sand..... Gases and stuff....

Personaly, newer had dsb, but i dont like to touch sand if not necessary.....

Also, depends on sand itself, fine sand can clump, if u dont have adequate sand stirers/cuc, coarser sand is not a problem.....

For your method, its good as any, but there is a limit what mehanical filtration can remove, and many things that is released into water simply pass trough mehanical filtration. Not a big deal, but still worth mentioning....

 

[blaxsun]

Why do you leave the sand bed alone, bacteria? Thanks

A few reasons. First, I have an awesome substrate cleaning crew in the form of orange spotted and regular nassarius snails, cerith snails, orange lip conches and black sea cucumbers. Second, as @Koh23 pointed out - sometimes disturbing deep sand beds (mine is around 2") can cause more harm than good. Third, I'm running Oolite - so it's incredibly fine and blows around easy (making it very difficult to vacuum properly).