do you or don't you?

[mandarin w]

Are we supose to clean the sand bed like we clean the gravel in a fresh water tank. I've asked this question for about two years and get both answers. Today again I was told I need to clean my sand bed out at least twice a year. Well I had a long fight with Red slime and lost quite a bit of my sand bed (down from 3inch to maybe 1/2 to 1 inch ) not many snails or other inverts left either. Any now I was told to clean out the sand bed before I can add new sand to make sure no more red slime is left. Then I could add more inverts. Tonight as soon as I touched that sand bed I got an incredible amount of yellow-brown junk all over the tank. My tank is a 75 gal reef, established for about 2 years. I have 2 emperor 400's, Rena XP3, 2 power heads and a seacleon 150 (which doesn't work worth a darn. (I probly could get more crap out of my tank if I used my mouth and spit it out). Plan on getting a larger tank 120 with a sump in future so that is why I haven't replace it yet. Any way back to the question. I was told to do this since I don't have enough inverts left to clean the sand bed. Is this right. Or did I possibly hurt the tank badly. The filters cleaned alot of that crap out in about 30 min. But my brittle is highly ticked off. He is climbing the glass right now. God I hate LFS, They act like if they answer your question, they are giving away some super top secret info.

 

[azocean709]

I dont touch my sandbed personally. I may do a little vacume here and there, but i dont dig into the sand bed at all. I have read many cases that people have disturbed their sand beds and actually had their tank start a small cycle because it releases all them trapped goodies that are in the sand bed. most of them said that it only lasted for a week, In my 55gal, I think i got my flow right, and between that and my little crabs , snails, shrimp, and the brittle, my sand bed stays pretty clean.

 

[palmer]

The yellow-brown stuff was most likely fish poo, I guess. My tank has been up and running for about a year and I don't plan on doing anything with the sand unless I start a new tank in a few years. I'm just thinking out loud here, but...I would think that if you have an established nitrogen cycle in the sand, along with those little stringy snotty worms (the good one's) and you're removing sand, you're going to lose a lot of that that has taken a long time to establish. Is the red stuff you are talking about cyanobacteria by chance? I had an outbreak and a buddy of mine brought some treatment for it and a few days later it was all gone.
www.project280z.com

 

[fisherson]

What did he use to get rid of the cyno? that my main problem with my sandbed. I turned my lights down to 6 hours i don't feed enough if anything...but it just won't go away.

 

[azocean709]

Originally Posted by fisherson
What did he use to get rid of the cyno? that my main problem with my sandbed. I turned my lights down to 6 hours i don't feed enough if anything...but it just won't go away.
If you get good flow over the bed this will help. if it is indeed cyano . My 55 , i have 4 powerheads....3 of them are only 145GPH i have them situated to get good flow from both sides facing ceter to dual each other. one is in the back of the tank attached to a spray bar at the bottom going back to front into my LR, the big one is a 300 GPH that i have on top blowing front and down. over the sand bed. cyano doesnt like alot of flow. I had an out break of that, and all i did was leave my lights off for a week, got more powerheads, and reduced my feeding< I was spoilin my fish to say the least! LOL> there are others who can give a better explanation , Im horrible at explaining, i just know how it works, but i hope this helps.

 

[palmer]

It's something called ChemiClean. It's added to the tank water and you change out 20% of water within 48 hours. I can get in touch with him if you can't find any info on it.

 

[mandarin w]

Tried chem clean, Red Slime remover, Had lights out for a week, I feed only flake food every other day. It would always come back. Then I was told to leave it alone, it will form a thick carpet and float up to the top of the tank. then just take your net and scoop it out. It didn't work that way. never floated up,. when I took the syphen hose to get it out. It broke apart into billions of little pieces, and mixed in with my sand bed. (It looked like cherry chip vanilla ice cream). Then instead a patch or two. I had it every where. Sand, Rock even the power heads and filter boxes. So then it come down to doseing every week, and if it starting going on something, it was pulled out and trashed. After about six to eight weeks of this I finally quit having any outbreaks. So far nothing for three months. But now there isn't much sand left. I'm trying to get a 120 gal with a sump set up so I could move these guys over. The fish and corals handle this pretty darn well. All survived not problem thus far. The inverts are the casualties of this war. sifting star(MIA). Snail can't find a one. hermits down to four or five. One cleaner shrimp left, and one coral banded and one brittle star. :notsure: