Sandbed???

greenhorn

greenhorn

Member
back when i started my tank i got lucky and scored a bunch of LS and LR for short $$. it's been up and running for a while and everythings doing well. my ? is can i siphon some of the sandbed out ? i have about 4 1/2 " and i'd like to get it around 2" . i wanted to ask so i don't harm anything. it's a 90DT . i have 7 soft corals and 6 fish. thank you in advance...walt
 
lecithin

lecithin

Member
I don't see why not. Make sure you don't take out anything good like any Nassarius snails if you have any but other then that you should be able to remove some. Whether siphoning is the best way I'm not sure. You might want to get a container on the bottom and slowly put the sand in by hand that way you can feel your way around.... that is if you can get your hand in there.
 
m0nk

m0nk

Active Member
If you do this, do it over a long period of time. The top portion of your sand bed will have the most beneficial bacteria and you don't want to take too much of that out too quickly. Personally, though, I wouldn't recommend going down to 2 inches. Most people with good sand-bed experience suggest either a shallow sand bed of 1 inch or less or a deep sand bed of 3 inches or more. There's quite a bit to it, so if you search on DSB there will be lots of threads that get into some really good detail.
 
greenhorn

greenhorn

Member
ok thank you . mostly in the center is where i would like to thin it down and leave the outer say 12 " on each end to remain deep. just the center 2' in width i want to remove some.
 
acrylic51

acrylic51

Active Member
Your major life support is within the top 3/4"-1" of the sand bed.....But with that being said it won't harm your tank or sand bed a bit, by removing some.....If you do alittle research you'll find that even DSB portions over time are suppose to be removed and all sandbeds need and require syphoning.
The theory on DSB they do work, but over time become compacted and full of "junk" and then become "junk" without proper maintenance.......This info can be found if you read some of Bob Goemans and other top researchers in the hobby.
 
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