Rejuvenate sand?

[steve102571]

I have a dsb with only a few a few crabs and snails, so in order to clean the sand, I stir and vac. As could be expected, some of the sand gets vacuumed up along with algae, old food etc. My question is this: Is there anyway to clean the debris, algae etc from the sand and re use it? I was thinking of letting it dry in the sun and then stir it, thus by releasing the dried food, algae etc from the sand and then re using it????? Surely old algae cannot be re activiated once it has been dried, right?

 

[flower]

Originally Posted by Steve102571
http:///forum/post/3037032
I have a dsb with only a few a few crabs and snails, so in order to clean the sand, I stir and vac. As could be expected, some of the sand gets vacuumed up along with algae, old food etc. My question is this: Is there anyway to clean the debris, algae etc from the sand and re use it? I was thinking of letting it dry in the sun and then stir it, thus by releasing the dried food, algae etc from the sand and then re using it????? Surely old algae cannot be re activiated once it has been dried, right?
I have a 3' sand bed, I bought a sand sifting goby. No way would I clean sand. There are snails the can do the job for you too.
Is there some reason you do it manually?

 

[aquaknight]

I am pretty curious, out of the entire list of topics to pick, why you choose aggressive fish, to ask?

 

[crypt keeper]

why not get a sand sifter like stated or a fighting conch?

 

[sepulatian]

Originally Posted by Steve102571
http:///forum/post/3037032
I have a dsb with only a few a few crabs and snails, so in order to clean the sand, I stir and vac. As could be expected, some of the sand gets vacuumed up along with algae, old food etc. My question is this: Is there anyway to clean the debris, algae etc from the sand and re use it? I was thinking of letting it dry in the sun and then stir it, thus by releasing the dried food, algae etc from the sand and then re using it????? Surely old algae cannot be re activiated once it has been dried, right?
How deep is your DSB? You should not be moving the sand in the DSB at all. That is the reason for having a DSB, de-nitrification.

 

[sk8shorty01]

I agree with Sep 100%. If you are stirring the DSB then you are just wasting all the money you spent to buy all that sand. The object of the DSB is to create very low flow areas with little to no oxegen. This helps anerobic bacteria to cultivate and to help in de-nitrification. If you keep stirring it you are adding oxygen, eliminating low flow areas and killing the bacteria that you are striving to obtain in the tank.

 

[spanko]

Besides one of the reasons a DSB crashes, effectively nuking the tank, is because it has been disturbed.

 

[steve102571]

I choose the aggressive forum b/c my 750g will be an agressive set up. I have currently have a 5" niger, 5" yellow tang, 20" snowflake, and a 10+/-" panther. It was originally going to be for rays and sharks (hence the dsb), but not much are compatible with sharks and rays......therefore, it will be for triggers, wrasses, groupers etc. Out of 75 t-snails, niger has flipped over and ate 50%, as for the crabs, he took care of 20-25 in a month. So the way I see it, I can either remove all of the sand and replace with crushed coral, add CUC and circum to the fact that they will be consumed, or stir and vac the sand.....or add 2 lg rays to stir the sand and pray for the best when the triggers get bigger. When I add other trigs, it will probably be a pink tail and a huma. Any other sugestions?

 

[shrimpy brains]

I don't know about aggressive tanks, but was wondering if sand sifting star or cucummbers would be safe from your predaters??

Also, what about sand dollars?? (Of course, These all require well established tanks, so they don't starve.) If none of these work, you can rinse the sand and replace it in tank. Good luck either way, and I would love to see a pic. or two of your tank!