Vacuuming - Part Deux

[Reef Pilot]

Originally Posted by Magickiwi

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.

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).