Vacuuming - Part Deux
 

Ok, so according to the highly controversial poll on vacuuming sand, we have almost 2 to 1 in favour of it.

So question - How is it done in your tank? Siphon? In tank vacuum? Spatula?

...I like dirty, can I play too?

I'm not sure I can reply to that within the bounds of good taste :)

When I did vacuum, I just siphoned with a regular wider bottom vacuum head. But like I said in the other thread (the one that only likes opinions worth publishing:biggrin:), my goby does the job for me now.

Under gravel filter ftw!

No idea what you mean by this, however. I am actually doing the dirty thing right now. :wink:

I have about a 3" DSB and would be interested in learning a method of vacuuming the sand that doesn't result in all the sand being siphoned out of the tank. I've had a couple golden head gobies that do a wonderful job of sifting the top couple centimeters of sand but one took a trip out of the tank and the other wound up as lunch for my carpet nem. Every time I stir or disturb the sandbed my phosphates go through the roof.

I wonder if Mr. Dyson has something up his sleeve with the proper amount of suction for our hobby?

You have to adjust the siphon flow so the sand stays and the detritus gets removed. I used to do a about 1/2 my sand bed (only front, couldn't reach the back) with each water change. If you want to do more, you can siphon into a large cheese cloth in your sump to catch the detritus. But you will also want to dose a few capfuls of MB7 then to get rid of the cloudiness.

I did that when I was rearranging my rock work and sand. You wouldn't believe how much crap came out of that sand. Couldn't even see to the back of the tank for an hour or so afterwards. But it sure looked good after that. I also removed 1/2 the sand (to my then new downstairs tank), so just have a shallow sand bed now.

But now my goby creates his own sand storm from time to time, and the crap just flows out the overflow. Plus he creates these pretty little mounds all over the place, and likes to bury my mushroom and palys (that's good).

Insert syphon directly into the sand bed with a strong flow. Work until all sand is removed. Repeat as needed. Sit back and watch as the nutrient levels in your tank drop.

Reticulating shop vac, Getting the water back in the tank part has been redneck engineered but still working on an easy way to get the sand back into the tank. I guess that's why I have a bare bottom tank!!!!

I'm seriously considering just siphoning off 2" of the sand and letting yet another golden head work on what's left. I love the look of the DSB but it's getting too ugly to maintain and I'm sure that's what's keeping my phosphates high. I have some livestock that depend on the sand bed otherwise I'd consider just going down to the egg crate bottom...

Well spoken! +1 to that ; )

I've wanted to remove my sand many times. It's only there for my two leopard wrasses and I've actually pushed the sand so it's entirely contained in the back middle of my tank so only about half of my tank has a sandbed.

I re-homed my watchman goby and have never had a CUC so some form of sand maintenance is required hence my regular turkey bastings of the sand but some direct removal needs to be added to my routine.

getting a full length siphon tube under my rock tower and past my corals will be tough. I'm going to slice my siphon tube in half to allow for this. If that still doesn't work I'll grab a spatula.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2XbCWmY0eqY

i like my sand white and my men dark. I tried to vote but the option for dark was not there. Whats up with that?

I do two things. If there is a lot of detritus buildup I might use something to stir up the sand and then siphon out what comes up. In some cases I just siphon some of the sand right out and depending on how well it rinses clean at the sink I either put it back or just toss it out. Every so often I'll top up with new sand.

Disclaimer: I only do this in my smaller tank. In my larger tank the sand gets shifted around by the pumps and also has a VERY productive diamond goby. If I stir the sand up in there, nothing comes out, it's always clean. I am guessing it is the sand shifting in the current and the goby that is the explanation. Every so often I have to scoop up sand from the back and replace it at the front.

Have you ever tried dark sand? :razz:

Without pics, didn't happen.

Ok, back on track. What was I talking about? Oh ya. Sand. Wayne uses an Eheim vacuum, apparently works well. Since I can't remove sand, I may try this.
I'll leave a bed of sugar sand in the back for the wrasse, but so far really happy with the special grade. It's still where I left it last night.

I also really liked the special grade sand, no sand storms just some random spots that would "dune" but not enough to make it bare in spots. Sand bed was only 1.5-2".

On another note, not sure if it was mentioned here or not but I have also heard of people taking a plastic fork and attaching it to the end of a syphon and raking the sand to lift the detritus which then gets sucked up by the syphon. I have personally never done this but in theory it sounds like a good solution.

When I had a shallow sand bed I used a gravel vacuum when I did water changes. They don't seem to make the one I have anymore. To start the syphon you just pump it up and down in the tank. It's nice and long which gives the sand plenty of time to separate from the crud.

Will 1" of sand bed support a sifting star and nassarius snails? What would be a feasible method of "washing" the sand free of nitrate and phosphate?

Would replacing it with a coarse crushed coral be more beneficial and would that support the livestock?

Magickiwi, short answer is no.
Longer answer is some reading here:
http://www.reefkeeping.com/issues/2004-12/rs/index.php

I use a gravel vacuum and vacuum all the sand to its full depth on all waterchanges. The sand is only 1/2" deep.

If your sand is more than 1/2" deep and you do not regularly vacuum it you do risk exposing black anaerobic areas and releasing hydrogen sulphide. So if you haven't vacuumed, but you want to, you have to start slowly by only going through the top 1/2" of the sand, and continually going a bit deeper on each waterchange. I've had tanks with up to 6" sand beds that I vacuumed to their full depth, but it was done regularly and no anaerobic areas were allowed to form.

Vacuuming your sand bed used to be common practice until the DSB sand bed craze/fad started, now 15 years later we are wondering if it is OK to vacuum again. generally I feel that if you have a shallow sand bed vacuum away (1" or less) if you have a deep one and haven't vacuumed be for be car full as you could release pockets of nasties that can with out your tank. if you have a deep one you have to vacuum regularly to prevent these pockets for forming (as in weekly)

as for the argument that it is taking stuff away from our sand bed that needs to be there for the bio diversity of a functioning sand bed, thats a bunch of bunk, there is no way a hobbyist can create a fully functioning DSB as we cannot support the biodiversity required for it to work properly.

Steve

i'm pretty sure our tanks are too small and have too many predators of the sandbed guys to worry about much biodiversity in them.

SUCK IT!

^ your sand...

How much sand do you have to replace when you do this in your 90G ?

I am just going to siphon out all the sand into a bucket. Might replace it if it ends up looking to ugly but it will only be thick enough for aesthetic purposes.

I don't vacuum but I do rake it. Or at least unused to before I inherited a sand sifting goby from Brettski.

I used to use this..

http://i1002.photobucket.com/albums/...ps86maip54.jpg

.. And let the particulates that I kick up filter into filter socks on my return. It's the only time i'll use filter socks too. General I keep the socks off otherwise.

Do you miss all the forking you used to do before I helped you out?

That's what she said! Boom!

Necessity is the mother of invention and his dual pronged approach is definitely innovative.

Ya, I don't fork it anymore. Not sure if I miss it or not. Ocassionally I'd accidentally fork someone sleeping in the bed. I'm sure they are happy that I'm not bothering them anymore.

i hear ya. while i consider myself to be a master baster i never attempt it if my wrasses have gone to sleep for fear of basting them.

No question, I would siphon a shallow sand bed.

I don't siphon the DSB in my seagrass tank. I use sand sifting seastars and manual agitation clean the uppermost centimetre, but I don't go below that.

I'm still not sure how you'd siphon a fine sugary sand bed. Even though I intend to remove quite a bit of sand in the near future as an ongoing maintenance issue how would you do it without removing your sand bed?

you stir it up , the ditrius is lighter than the sand and almost always piles up somewhere or in several mounds on top of the sand

if the sugar sand is deep then stirring it is a bad idea , if its shallow then theres no harm in raking it:)

:first:


:second: