scarf_ace1981 Posted February 22, 2006 Share Posted February 22, 2006 every once in a while i redocate the tank and i was wondering if i disrupt some sort of balance by stirring the sand up a bit. let me just say it's like turkey basting the sand. i'm not putting a lid on the tank, flipping it upside down and shaking it like a margarita. Link to comment
Corbet_Jackson50 Posted February 22, 2006 Share Posted February 22, 2006 I know if you have a DSB over 4" it can be a big no no to disturb the deepest layer of the DSB, if you dont have a DSB and are stirring all the way to the bottom you should be in decent shape. if you arent disturbing a DSB you will be stirring up plenty of detritus and disolved organics just watch your skimmer take care of it. I would see what others have to say as well. Link to comment
MJD Posted February 22, 2006 Share Posted February 22, 2006 I always stir the sand at the bottom because algae builds up on it. I dont have any problems with it hat i could see so far. I bought some Red Slime powder which gets rid of all of the algae and red stuff on your sand at the LFS. it works great, now i only stir sand about once a week. Link to comment
stoney waters Posted February 22, 2006 Share Posted February 22, 2006 I stir the sand before each water change. Once the water clears I change out my mechanical filter material. Link to comment
proraptor Posted February 22, 2006 Share Posted February 22, 2006 I dont stir my sand....I let my nassarius snails do it for me Link to comment
klagos Posted February 22, 2006 Share Posted February 22, 2006 I don't purposefully go stirring my sand, but it deos get moved around a bit when rearranging rocks and doing WCs and I have never had a problem. To MJD, have you tried to prevent the red algae from forming without using the Red SLime stuff? I think it is generally better to eliminate as much algae as possible by either reducing the amount of food given or increasing the clean up crew. I added about 8 various hermits and several snails and the hermits stir the sand and the snails take care of the algae. Personally, I hate adding chemicals if I can avoid it. Just a thought. Link to comment
Gregor Posted February 22, 2006 Share Posted February 22, 2006 I turkey baste my sand once a week and durin WC...never had a problem. Link to comment
natrate Posted February 23, 2006 Share Posted February 23, 2006 I dont stir my sand....I let my nassarius snails do it for me My nassarius snails do a pretty good job too, but occasionally I have to help them. Just a light stirring in spots is all I do. Link to comment
scatcat Posted February 23, 2006 Share Posted February 23, 2006 Humm I stir and suck at the same time I attach a broken piece of a plastic spoon to the end of a hose and drain as I stir up the sand bed. I never thought about it being bad it looks so pretty when I'm done. Do you think I'm killing it? Scat Link to comment
funkmuffin Posted February 23, 2006 Share Posted February 23, 2006 I vacuum mine (about ~1") every water change, which is weekly. I'd rather remove all the detritus than depend on cleanup crew. I left about 3" of room between the rocks and glass expressly for this purpose. Alot of the junk gets up in suspension and my skimmer does the rest. I actually sort of think that most of what I stir up makes it to the skimmer rather than being removed with my siphon. Since I started, my tank has been remarkably cleaner in terms of nuisance algae, and water params are more consistent -- very important in <20G of water. Link to comment
MarineManiac Posted February 23, 2006 Share Posted February 23, 2006 i also vacuum my sand and the corals love it. they get fed from the kicked up waste. no skimmer. but i clean my media out after it settle. i do it every other week and theres no build up on my sand at all. Link to comment
pickle Posted February 23, 2006 Share Posted February 23, 2006 glad someone posted about this. I used do the turkey baster thing all the time but now try to limit it as much as possible. I also make an effort not to kick up too much crap at once when I do it. After a major sandstorm a few weeks back I noticed my blenny ended up with a bunch little white parasites (flatworms?) on him. They went away after a couple days of the neon goby picking them off but he was pretty bummed out and I felt bad. I also read that it's particularly bad for clams to be exposed to too frequent sandstorms cause they can't "clear their throats" like mobile critters can. I got a little hitchiker squamosa from a piece of live rock that I don't want to risk hurting. I have a 2 1/2" sb in a 12 gallon so I imagine it has something to do with the size of the tank you have. I've found if you toss in a bunch of hermits and resist the temptation to pull out the baster for a few days it will magically disappear. I'm sure it doesn't hurt to follow the previous advice of cutting back on the feeding too. Link to comment
MJD Posted February 23, 2006 Share Posted February 23, 2006 I don't purposefully go stirring my sand, but it deos get moved around a bit when rearranging rocks and doing WCs and I have never had a problem. To MJD, have you tried to prevent the red algae from forming without using the Red SLime stuff? I think it is generally better to eliminate as much algae as possible by either reducing the amount of food given or increasing the clean up crew. I added about 8 various hermits and several snails and the hermits stir the sand and the snails take care of the algae. Personally, I hate adding chemicals if I can avoid it. Just a thought. I have 15 blue leg hermits and about 25 snails in my 30g, but they dont do anything! I always have to stir the sand to prevent algae build up. Link to comment
HotRod68Camaro Posted February 23, 2006 Share Posted February 23, 2006 Does anybody use sand sifting stars? Link to comment
fxdude Posted February 23, 2006 Share Posted February 23, 2006 My nassarius snails do a pretty good job too, but occasionally I have to help them. Just a light stirring in spots is all I do. Same here. I've heard it's good every once and a while to create a "storm" in your tank. After all we are trying mimic nature right? I take my baster and blow stuff off the rocks and stir the sand up a bit. I do a water change right afterwards while everything is still floating in the water. I don't believe it's good to do this often though because it can disturb the little creatures in your live rocks. I think I do it once a month or every couple of months. Link to comment
Gimpster Posted February 23, 2006 Share Posted February 23, 2006 I have a multipronged approach the sand bed maintance. Hermits, micro brittle stars, bristle worms, nassarius snails, and a small cave goby wich is apparently also a sand sifter. Sand bed stays fairly clean, I still blast the rocks clean untill I get a return manifold buit to provide better water movment. Between that and the macro in the fuge I have no fine hair alga, just a little light green fiberous alga and not much else. I do feed daily, change about 10% to 20% of the water about every two weeks, no skimmer yet in two years, but it all seems to be working. Link to comment
cannondale Posted February 23, 2006 Share Posted February 23, 2006 i create a "crap storm" using a turkey baster and use a magnum hot canister filter with the small micron filter for a couple of hours getting all the stuff out of the tank, then i do a water change. I run the filter again with the active carbon insert for a couple of hours. my water quality is awesome!! Link to comment
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