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5 hours ago, Tamberav said:

 

Thinking about siphoning out the sand bed and rinsing it in the tank water next water change. Is there a right micron filter sock or something I can use to help separate the small particles? I have a lot of life in the sand bed, spaghetti worms and such I don't want to lose. I feel the sand bed could use a seep cleaning though, more than the siphoning I do. Maybe just stir it up good and poor off the silt/waste? Tank has been up 7 months. 

It may be a worthy experiment, but the question is how likely is it that many/any of the soft-bodied wormy organisms will survive a disturbance like a move.

 

That just means keep expectations low and be pleasantly surprised when it works out. ;)  If it doesn't, then you just have really clean sand.

 

What can be said for sure is that IF the old sand is really a problem (maybe debatable) then it's easier to pitch the old sand.

 

easy ≠ right

 

Keep us posted!   :):)

 

(In 7 months there shouldn't be much in the way of dirt....in case you haven't already, check it in a few places before jumping to conclusions.)

 

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I think most will live simply because I beat them up pretty good when I siphon the sand. I think I chopped some in half and ended up with 2 worms. 

 

The sand isn't a problem right now but does have debris in it. I just don't want it to become one. If I can clean it out without losing all my micro-fauna, a good deep cleaning every 3-6 months would probably be a nice regimen to add to my tank maintenance. It seems doable, my next water change isn't until Friday though :P I'm thinking I will siphon out half and clean on Friday then the other half on my next water change Monday. I don't think I can get it out all in 1 go because I only change 5 gallons each time.

 

 

2 minutes ago, mcarroll said:

It may be a worthy experiment, but the question is how likely is it that many/any of the soft-bodied wormy organisms will survive a disturbance like a move.

 

That just means keep expectations low and be pleasantly surprised when it works out. ;)  If it doesn't, then you just have really clean sand.

 

What can be said for sure is that IF the old sand is really a problem (maybe debatable) then it's easier to pitch the old sand.

 

easy ≠ right

 

Keep us posted!   :):)

 

 

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On 2/28/2018 at 3:31 PM, brandon429 said:

we have never pre filtered for the goodies but I wish you would! take good pics we can brainstorm something, its such a great idea to remove only the waste/silt and put back the goods. plus, w companies like Algen or something close to that spelling, goog w correct lol, we can just buy the replacements should the pre filter not work.

 

 

agreed you can catch some pouring onto a mesh cloth or something, look for the wigglers, and catch em with a spoon lol then move to a holding container? whatever you come up with, at least its a doc'd first attempt at self regeneration of the cleaned sandbed

 

 

you'd be addressing the #2 reason people don't want to touch sandbeds. nothing will ever top bacterial concern as the #1

 

even those animals are incidental, your corals wont mind or be affected if they're removed. but to practice keeping biodiversity in place? that's 100% reefing.

I started this with tonight's water change. I did about 1/3 of the sandbed as that's how much I was able to suck out before my 5g bucket was full of water. 

 

I swished the sand around in the bucket with my hands and it clouded enough you could no longer see the sand at the bottom of the bucket. I vaccume the sand bed weekly so yeah... Still a lot of silt/debris.

 

I then took a stainless steel strainer I had and took a few handfulls of sand at a time and strained and swished them around some more and dumped it back into the tank. It did not cloud falling to the bottom. 

 

When done I was left with maybe a half a cup of sugar grain sand in the bottom that I tossed and 5 gallons of brown silt water. 

 

Added 5g newly mixed water back. 

 

Sand bed has tons of life.. Pods.. Spaghetti worms... Baby bristles... Asternas... Micro brittle stars.. Pods... Baby snails.... All went back in with the sand a bit shook up but alive. 

 

Will do another 1/3 on Monday. 

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@brandon429

 

Been two days since cleaning of part of the sand. I got some diatoms a few weeks ago after using 'contaminated water'. SIlicates + poopy sand = diatoms :)

 

Po4 0.018

Nitrate 0

 

You can see the left side has a lot more diatoms than the right side (which I cleaned two days ago). There is also a live spaghetti worm hanging out on the right side by the zoas that survived the cleaning.

 

I figured this would be a good photo to show the improvement.

 

Disclaimer: half dead coral was a rescue, came back to life, and is recovering.. slowly.

 

2018-03-04_08-15-51

 

 

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