Does this sound like a good idea? Cleaning a DSB for future use.

seecrabrun

seecrabrun

Active Member
I recently upgraded my mature FOWLR to a larger tank and obviously the DSB did not go with it. Instead I left it in the original tank and just have the tank off to the side with a heater and power head. There was still CUC I was slowly picking out as they emerged from the sand over the days.

The other night I decided to take a flashlight to the now lifeless tank, except it wasn't lifeless. It was SWARMING with pods. Tisbe in specific. This is the strain I cultivate to feed my scooter blenny. I add them to her tank on a regular basis but I occasionally add them to the other tanks in case, for some reason, I need to put her in one of them in an emergency (not likely but I'd rather be prepared).

So I now have more pods in this half empty tank than I do in all of my cultures combined, since it hasn't been harvested at all in an actual month!

I want to somehow harvest them, but more than that, I want to try and move the sandbed and some pods into a smaller tank on my now upgraded system to continue to cultivate the pods there(as well as the refugium on her system and the actual cultures I keep). So basically a dedicated refugium away from the filtration system and away from her system.
Basically I'm creating backups of backups of backups to make sure she always have enough food.

Anyway. I know I can't transfer the DSB as it is. If I sift it even a little it'll cause a cycle. I don't want this cycle to go into the fish system, nor do I want it to kill the pods in the tank it is now.

I was wondering if I could stir/vacuum small sections at a time and run them through my zoo/phytoplankton sieves to harvest any pods and then move the now vacuumed and sifted sand into the new refugium setup.

I'm mostly worried about crashing the lush culture that is in this tank while trying to shift things over.

I would absolutely love any advice that you have on this and instructions on the best way to achieve my goal. Thanks in advance!
 
bang guy

bang guy

Moderator
I have successfully harvested the top 1/2" of a DSB in the past. 90% of the sand bed animals live in the top 1/2". I would not try to keep any more than that other than cherry picking desirable animals AFTER scraping out the 1/2". Do not stir.
 
bang guy

bang guy

Moderator
Yes, I used one of those rectangular specimen containers. Worked fine. Set it low in the tank and poured it slowly on the new sand bed.
 
pegasus

pegasus

Well-Known Member
I just finished completely replacing the bed in my refugium. I had been using Miracle Mud, which requires replacing 50% every 6 months... which isn't exactly fun. I shut my pumps down, and siphoned all of the mud into 5 gallon buckets. I replaced it with 40 lbs. of Fiji Pink live sand. I siphoned the excess water from the new sand, and refilled my refugium with saltwater. I then spent close to an hour picking out amphipods, hermits, and snails. I'll be going back shortly to strain the mud through screen to see if any snails are left in the mud, as I haven't seen the first nassarius. There should be several small ceriths in the mud, also.

I'm glad I finally got around to removing the mud, but I regret losing all those parvocalanus crassirostris (pelagic calanoid copepod) that swarmed in the corners. I'll try to strain as many out as I can to restock the fuge. Not sure where the Tisbe pods are now, but hopefully enough of them clung to the walls to repopulate the fuge as well. If not, then the system will go into reverse mode. Instead of the refugium stocking the tank, the tank will stock the refugium. It shouldn't take long until things are back to normal. Perhaps even better than normal... lol!
 
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