Do you clean your sand bed?

[mandarin man]

Hi,

I am wondering is it good to vacumm my sand bed sucking out the waste (1.5 inch sand bed). If yes, how do you do it? Vacumm just at the surface or go all the way down to the bottom completely clean?

Thanks

[banditpowdercoat]

I just lightly vacuum the surface without disturbing the bed

[Myka]

During water changes, I use a siphon hose to suck out any detritus on the surface, then I gently stir my sandbed in it's entirety hovering above it with the siphon as I stir. If you haven't done this before, this can be very dangerous since an undisturbed sandbed will often have areas of Hydrogen sulfide (black stinky patches), and the release of these areas can lead to a major algae bloom, and possibly crash the tank.

If you haven't stirred the sandbed before, but want to start you need to start off slowly by only stirring maybe 10% of the sandbed per week. Each week do your old 10% plus a new 10%, and keep up on it.

[Piscez]

I used to do the above unitl I got my Yellow head sleeper goby now I never touch it as it's always clean, I call here Catherine (my wifes name!) :rolleyes:

[walloutlet]

I used to do the above unitl I got my Yellow head sleeper goby now I never touch it as it's always clean, I call here Catherine (my wifes name!) :rolleyes:

Nice!!!! :rofl:

[BlueWorldAquatic]

Sand sifting stars and dragon gobies. Get them and you won't be touching the sand bed too much after that.

I stirred up my sandbed in my personal tank at home, and killed my frogspawn after some bacteria got into it.

Ken - BWA

[Coleus]

I rarely touch my sand bad but this is good to know.
________
NEW MEXICO DISPENSARIES (http://newmexico.dispensaries.org/)

[Myka]

I have sand dwelling critters too. I'm a big fan of Fighting Conches and Orange Lipped Conches. I don't like sand sifting starfish because they are predatory, and will strip the sandbed of pretty much all life. I really like Rainford's Gobies for sifting.

[RuGlu6]

Just go BB ! (bare bottom) no cleaning no steering, no problem

[mandarin man]

If we go to most LFS, they do not use sand at all and recommend us not to because sand bed requires major cleaning or issues would arrive (algae bloom on the sand)

I know some of us have critters to take care of the sand bed and do not touch the sand bed. I have 5 nassarius snails and they are doing an OK job but some spots they do not touch; these spots are now covered with brown diatom. I assume the occurence of diatom because of the accumulation of the detris and waste that have never been clean out. Therefore, I figure that I should be more active in the cleaning processes.

Through reading from your responses, I assume that if the critters are not doing enough job of cleaning the subtrate, then I should siphon the substrate more often. Correct me if my assumption is not correct.

[justinl]

I have yet to see a shallow sand bed that has gone anoxic and developed the black patches in it. As far as I know, it's only a problem with a DSB.

[Myka]

I've seen 1" sandbeds with black patches.

Nassarius snails aren't usually good enough to clean the sandbed, but they do help. If your tank is 50 gallons or more you could consider a small conch. They need a lot of food though, so you need a fair sized sandbed to provide them with enough food. They are good in the sandbed because they eat bad things, and leave good things. :)

Personally, I think any sandbed requires quite a bit of maintenance to keep it in top shape, so I would agree and say that if your critters aren't doing the job 100% that you should help out with siphoning, and at least stirring the top 1/2" or so. If you do start stirring though, don't be surprised if you have a bit of an algae bloom for the first few weeks you start since you will be releasing a bunch of crap stuck in the sand.

[goby1]

I guess everyone's situation is different. My tank is 5 years old with a 2-3 inch sandbed and I never touch it. I have narcisse snails (probably about 10) and a sand sifting starfish. Recently I had to replace my tank and was told that I should probably put in a new sandbed which I did. Much to my surprise, the old sandbed looked as white and clean as the day I put it in with no odor other than that of a beach. There were no green or black patches. I was surprised and thought that I probably should have just kept the old one but so far so good.

[mandarin man]

I have seen conches from LFS, about 1 to 1.5inches. I know there are two types of conch- fighing and strawberry conch. How you do distinquish them? Which on you prefer? My tank is a 34 gallon, I prefer the one that stay small.

I have heard that conch kill snail in the tank :question:. Is this true?

[Myka]

If a conch kills snails, then it is not a conch, but more likely a predatious Whelk. There are many different types of conch; Strawberry, Fighting, Orange Lip, and Tiger all stay smallish. Queen conches (and a couple others) get very large. I've had Fighting and Orange Lip, and I would say they are pretty equal.