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Beneficial bacteria in the sand bed?


Rpc07

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I am getting everything in order to transfer from my biocube to the reefer 170 that should be arriving soon. I'm thinking of switching to a different substrate and I'm curious if I should be worried about an ammonia spike. Does the sand bed hold a good amount of the beneficial bacteria?

 

 

Thanks, Ryan.

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If you have a decent amount of live rock, there should be no problem in not transferring your existing sand bed. In fact, the chance of an ammonia spike will decrease by using new sand.

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If you have a decent amount of live rock, there should be no problem in not transferring your existing sand bed. In fact, the chance of an ammonia spike will decrease by using new sand.

 

Cool. Out of curiosity why would the chance be less?

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Because the sand bed contains nutrients/organics that get released when transferred. When not completely rinsed out, these can cause ammonia spikes. We see more spikes when transferring substrates than when using new. However, it is possible to transfer an existing sand bed, it just takes more work.

 

When you are transferring the contents of your old system, do not disturb the substrate until after you have removed everything else. Once the sand bed is disturbed, the remaining water should be discarded (so save any water you might wish to transfer before disturbing the sand).

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Digging up and transferring your sand bed digs up all sorts of crap (literally) and displacing that crap could and most likely will cause an ammonia spike.


(Seabass said that much more eloquently than I did!)

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Seabass said that much more eloquently than I did!

Haha, I was thinking that your explanation was much more to the point.

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I have transferred sandbeds before. Just ran everything with all the live rock and let it filter with carbon and powerheads on high. Through fish in 2hrs later. Lost nothing everyone is eating a day later.

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  • 1 month later...
SquishyFishy

I have had a nutrient problem with Cyano for months now. I have tackled that by weekly removing rocks of the gravel bed which have been infested with the cyano, of course every time I stir up some gunk but no ammonia spikes. Guess I don't disturb enough. I just remove the really bad looking red and GHA gravel. I routinely change my floss about twice a week. But the gravel is almost depleted now in front of the DT. Need to add some more and I'm trying to decide whether to add sand or gravel, any opinions?

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Need to add some more and I'm trying to decide whether to add sand or gravel, any opinions?

Sand is usually the better option. Crushed coral (gravel) traps more detritus in between the grains, whereas sand leaves more on the top where it can be more easily siphoned out. Crushed coral is alright if you regularly use a gravel vac and clean it out, but most people don't do the required maintenance. Organics (nutrients) in the substrate can cause problems like cyano and algae.

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SantaMonica

If filtering is the goal, then sand will give more surface area for bacterial to colonize.

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