serious sand cleaning... advice needed

scrapman

Member
Hi everyone....
I have a very well established 90 gal with two connecting 20 gl refugiums below.... Going super for ten plus years.... never dose anything..... two four gal RoDi WC per month.... super good Eshopp protein skimmer in tank #2....

question.... I'd like to keep my sand pristine white.....

Could I suck up the top of sand substrate on a regular basis to get the crap out and recycle the uncontaminated sand to the tank??? I would kind of flush (wash) the sand in a bucket and return it to main tank.

Thanks
 

lmforbis

Well-Known Member
Don’t mess with your sand bed. It will cause all kinds of issues From the release of hydrogen sulfide gas to screwing up your bio filtration and messing with the tiny critters in the sand that keep the system healthy. the tank is it’s own eco system. Crap on the sand bed is normal, it is in our tanks and it is in the ocean on the reefs. I vacuum small parts of my sand bed with each water change. Maybe 10-15% of the surface area. Pristine white just won’t happen in a healthy tank. You could try increasing your flow in the tank to keep things suspended better allowing them to go to your sump.
 
N

nathanieltyler

Guest
I wouldn't worry about keeping it pristine white clean. the critters in there are beneficial to the whole ecosystem, so probably just get what you can with a small vacuum and not wash it.
 
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