Who Cyphons Their Sandbed

[Coronus]

What tool is everyone using to vacuum their sand bed?
Sand bed meaning a actual sand bed and not crushed coral. It's hard to do it with out taking it out of the tank. Any help is appreciated. Thanks

 

[Homestead_Dad]

Pinch the tube to control the flow.

 

[wkscott]

My sand bed is one to two inches and more than three years old. I have never done a deep cleaning of it and my sand stays bright white. If you have enough little creatures to stir the sand and good flow within the tank most of the detritus should remain in suspension so that your mechanical filtration should remove it. Just before a water change I occasionally stir it up a little and then do the water change.

 

[cloak]

I don't really vacuum my sand bed, but I will use a small powerhead and stir the entire thing up once every month or so. It's amazing what can accumulate UNDER your rocks sometimes. I'll change out about 10% of the water and run a filter sock for a few hours to polish the water. I know I'm not going to get all of the crap out, but this has been done for the past eight years or so and the tank shows no signs of slowing down.

 

[Nohate]

Airline, with a bigger tube on the end, my tank is small and it gives me plenty of time to get what I need but I believe I will try a bigger house with the pinching method so I can get more flow when I want

 

[ahiggins]

Airline, with a bigger tube on the end, my tank is small and it gives me plenty of time to get what I need but I believe I will try a bigger house with the pinching method so I can get more flow when I want

I agree, small hoses give you plenty of time to clean.
I blow off my rocks every other month then turn off all the flow for about 2 hours. Then I clean the sand bed with my python pro clean. It's the 24" siphon that's about 1.5" diameter.
I pinch the hose when the sand gets too high in the tube so I don't suck it out. I have the bigger grain of sand (not the powdery stuff) but I cleaned my brothers sand once and it's the same premise but you just have to pinch it more often.
I don't do it every time I do a water change only because it stays pretty clean.

 

[Zack K]

What tool is everyone using to vacuum their sand bed?
Sand bed meaning a actual sand bed and not crushed coral. It's hard to do it with out taking it out of the tank. Any help is appreciated. Thanks

My 2 sandsifter stars, my Gold Headed sleeper goby, and my Nassarius snails siphon mine for me

 

[Coronus]

So here's some more details behind my question. Tank is A 125 SPS dominated. 6 years old 115 total gallon estimated
No3 is zero
Po4 is .02 or below I have a super high flow gph. Guessing around 96x
1 mp40 qd
1 TUNZE 6105
2x TUNZE 6095
Sicci syncra 5.0 I think or 4.0 don't remember
I have great color on my corals and good growth.
I have no algae what so ever except this green stuff that makes my sand hard on the sand bed on the surface.
My bulbs were replaced 7 months ago ATI 6 x 80
I feed 1-2 x a day Frozen mysis rinsed in RO
Pellets 1 x a week if that
3x a week1 sheet of nori
Water changes 12-15% every 2 weeks
Turkey Bastor on rocks weekly to loosen detritus.
I have no clue how rid this stuff. Started weekly water changes 3 weeks ago to help. Syhponed out my overflows and sump. Change filter socks every 3-4 days

Truth is I don't even know what this still is? Cyano, spirulina, algae, who knows. No much on the internet.
Thanks for reading!