Hey guys, I have a 34 gall. RSM, since the end of July. Just wondering how often the sand should be cleaned? I have about 43 lbs of LR, and prob around 40 lbs of sand. The sand has a decent amount of algae on it, and is starting to look a little dirty. I have not cleaned or vacuumed it yet at all.

I usually siphon off (not really vacuum, like a freshwater gravel) some of the debris on the sand during weekly water changes. A little sand will get siphoned off. I suppose that you could bleach, rinse, dechlorinate, and reuse it; however, I usually just discard it and replace lost sand once in a while.

With saltwater you never clean the sandbead.. that is your benificial algae...

You need some crabs and snails in there to eat it... but NEVER vaccum it or clean it... you will disrupt the eco system within and kill everything....

I have always gone "el natural" with it.. but keeping reef tanks for 8+ years now have never cleaned a sandbed... that is the way I was always taught....

that is not true. i have vaccumed half my sandbed since it was infested with cyano, and my tank is still good

To remove bad algae is one thing... but not just to remove diatoms....

I have a conch to help stir up the sandbed, so I never clean it.

Got it. What are some good inverts to clean it? I have an empire crab but he just picks at the rock and any algae growing on the glass. I have a bunch of astrae's and a few zebra's but they also don't clean the sand. I do have a brown blotch but he stays buried under..

keep the sandbed around 1" and vacuum with every water change. bacteria lives ON sand, not in it, and unless you have a deep sand bed over 3" deep you will have issues in the long run if you don't vacuum on a regular basis. sand-sifting critters only handle the top 1/2"-3/4" of sand, so detritus will settle into anything deeper than that and break down into nitrates and phosphates. keep your sand shallow, vacuum what you can reach on a regular basis, and keep plenty of critters to get the stuff that settles in the sand up under the rock.

I've never done it..

^ Same.

Nassarius.

Just a side note from this post, I have a problem wiht my maroon clown, with either what I think is tail rot, or ich. I made a post under the disease forum, and have not received any hits. Just wondering if maybe you guys can take a look at my post and help me out. There are pics, and I'm just trying to diagnose him properly so I know what to treat him with. Appreciate any help.

I vacuum my sand bed when ever I see its gotten to dirty.(kinda like my room) I go all the way to the bottom. I dont know if this what keeps my nitrates at zero but It works for me.

+1 for for the maid service

How are fighting conch's? Similar to nassarius?

This is what I do.

That^.

I never vacuumed the sb on my 40g, and it did fine. However, on my new 20g I vacuum with every wc, and my corals look better than ever.

I vacuum any dead spots in my tank and thats it. Meaning anywhere that debris settles I'll "spot suck". Otherwise I leave everything alone.

I used to vacuum.. stuff looked good.. occasionally I'll stir up a small patch.. stuff still looks good.

Forgive my newbness, but is this the vacuum to be used?



I've used it on my FW tanks to clean the gravel, but it would always pick up some gravel. How do you prevent the sand from getting sucked into the siphon?

When i did vacuum I put my finger on the end of the tube and would stop the flow until the sand fell back down.. but some does still get sucked up

I don't do anything, i was told years ago to leave it alone. I have 6 nassarius snails and 10 dwarf ceriths in my 12g. They are more than enough to naturally stir up the sand bed.

I just use the tubing.

I use that type of siphon vacuum. It pulls a ton of crap out every week. In spite of the fact that I have burrowing cowries constantly stirring it up. About a cup of sand gets siphoned and I swirl it to suspend all the debris and pour out the last bit of water, then I use a plastic cup to put the sand back in.

My nitrates are always zero, which is of course because of the cheato in the sump. But I think in a shallow sand bed there aren't any nitrate eating bacteria in the sand anyway, just nitrate producing.

+1 to using that gravel vac. if you just use the tubing you will suck out a lot of sand without stirring up the crap down in the sand. and nassarius/etc don't get anywhere near all the gunk out. i gravel siphon a 12x18" cube with about 150 nassarius in it at work and still get enough gunk out to make it worth while.

Depends on the type (size) of sand you have.

I have sugar sand 2-3" deep, there are all kinds of creatures in it. It gets packed down pretty good. Worms, clams, snails.

The nitrifying bacteria is Anaerobic, meaning no air. So stirring up your sand bed (other than the top 1" layer) kills this bacteria. I have small nassarius (maybe a half inch) so they don't disturb the bottom layer. Their only purpose is to eat left over food.

My 2 cents. Maybe I've learned something over the last year?

I don't like to stir up the sand. That's why I just use the tubing (I just want to remove the debris on top of the sand).

in your case you are maintaining a deep sand bed setup. you would not want to disturb the sand it this case. which means you also are unable to re-aquascape, moving your tank is a pain, and the first time a fish burrows or you dump water in the tank too fast you will have a problem. shallow sandbeds, 2" or less, need to be vacuumed to be properly maintained. the anaerobic denitrifying bacteria won't grow in sand beds less than 3", unless you use oolite.

I have Oolite.

I dont' move my rockscape around too much because even if I didn't have a sand bed, lighting and currents effect all life on the rocks. Once it's established, I leave it do it's thing...like a reef.

I have a biocube 14. I have moved it a couple of times, which takes a little longer then usual because I photograph it...then drain the water into buckets, and take down the rock on top. I do not disturb the sand or the rock in the sand. I only have about 3 lbs of my 16 in the tank that is partially buried.

I use a big, wide ended siphon that I put a smaller hose on so It doesn't suck things out TOO fast, and only vacuum the top of the sandbed- where the big nasty stuff is anyway. The sand just tumbles inside the big siphon end and water/crap is sucked out. I have about a 3'' deep sandbed in my 28 hqi, never did see my nass snails again once i put them in, so i have no idea if they're doing their job. I'm sure i suck out pods, etc too, but the dirty brown water keeps me convinced to keep this up.

Get a good clean up crew, you shouldn't have to clean your sand bed once your tank is established.

You said earlier if over 3'' you do not want to disturb the sand ... In this post you say u will have issues if not vacuumed and over 3''...

whoops typo, i meant under. sorry

I reduced my Select Reef Sand to 3/4" over time and I vacuum it every week.
I believe that DSB's in nano's are a ticking time bomb so I'm playing it safe.

does every one still vaccume a sandbed that is under 2 inches?