Siphoning LS???

mujtba

mujtba

Member
My LFS said today that I should siphon my LS. I had my tank for 2yrs, and never did it and so far so good.
But he said that that black stuff in the sand will one day just destroy everything in the tank.. he said the nitrates will one day skyrocket..
So how do you siphon the sand? It is not gravel and can get sucked up..
Any other methods?
I usually change 8G of water a week. Isn't that enough for a 75G tank to remove the wastes?
Can a tonge queen snail or a lawnmower blenny or some creature stir the sand and eat it up???
Is what he said TRUE? :notsure:
 
infalable

infalable

Member
I am not the expert here but my understanding is dont siphon. You will lose the benefits of the sand bed. I had a diamond goby (unfortunately it did a little carpet surfing) once and it sifted the sand like crazy. My sand was never cleaner. However they can create a bit of a sandstorm, but a 75 gal maybe bigenough that you would have no probs.
 
fishieness

fishieness

Active Member
definatly do not siphone. not only will you remove all the benificial creature in the sand, cause a sandstorm, but it will also make your nitrates skyrocket. by stiring it up too much you are exposing all the aerobic bacteria to oxygen, killing it. your sandbed will not be nearly as live, and much of your bacteria involved in the nitrogen cycle would be removed.
only vaccum if you have CC, not sand.
 
mujtba

mujtba

Member
hmm, he said that if i DO NOT siphon the sand, one day, it may be now, or in 4 yrs, the nitrates will skyrocket and kill all the creatures..
My sandbed is black in some parts.. I never cleaned it. I never thought I had to...
So you feel I should leave it alone?
What do you all do to your sandbeds?
Should I get some animal to stir the sand bed slightly? would it help? do i just leave it all as is?
 
fishieness

fishieness

Active Member
some animals will doit like different gobies, certh snails, ect. but you dont want to stir it too much like you would do if you siphoned all of it out of the tank.
as far as the black spots, usualy not a very good sign. id up your flow rate.
 
mujtba

mujtba

Member
hmm, flow rate meaning POWERHEADs? do you have sand? No black spots? what are the black spots in the sand?
 
fishieness

fishieness

Active Member
in one of my 3 tanks i have sand, then i ahve a barebottom and one with CC. there are no black spots, but i dont have a lot of space because it is filled with LR and corals, but no, there should be any black spots?
what is it? a spounge maybe? settlement of crap and things like diatoms?
and yes, flow rate as in powerheads. number of gallons per hour per gallon of your tank.
 
farslayer

farslayer

Active Member
I have done nothing to my sand bed in over seven years and my nitrates are 0 (undetectable). Your LFS apparently sells bull along with their fish. If you want to clean your sand, get some crabs, snails and the like, but don't siphon it, I mean you're gonna end up siphoning out the sand! I would not recommend the sand-sifting gobies as I've found they tend to eat all of the good stuff out of the sand; sand-sifting stars eventually starve after eating all of the good stuff. Pick up some crabs and snails, don't bother siphoning. My sand is a nice white and I do nothing but let my clean up crew clean.
 
mujtba

mujtba

Member
7yrs? thats pretty good. but how do you have NO black spots in the sand? i have it within 2yrs. i will look into a cleaning crew..
 
mujtba

mujtba

Member
queen conches they grow like 3inches, so how many would u need for a 75g? plus, do they walk all over corals dropping them down?
or do i get a tonga fighting conch instead?
whats better and how many do i need and will they walk over corals?
 
blazehok68

blazehok68

Active Member
mine doesnt walk over corals, more like goes under them. i would put 1 in a 75, maybe 2. im not sure if mine is a queen or a fighting.
 
mrdc

mrdc

Active Member
I wanted to chime in on the conch. I have a fighting conch and it does wonders on my sand. It hasn't every climbed the rocks or glass. It uses it trunk to clean the rocks and glass that it can reach. It is constantly working and it goes around the corals. I also need to credit my nassarius snails and hermits too.
 
J

jasondean

Guest
I have a large hermit that just throws the sand around hes very cool as long as he cant grab any other critters
 
firedog

firedog

Member
I have 2 queens and a fighting conch in my 75. Maybe that is too many but they seem to do fine. Doesn't really matter as I am moving into a 115 gal soon. They do a fine job of cleaning up the sand. My pistol shrimp also stir it up, but they only do it near their homes. My conchs are hardly every on the rock, mostly in the sand or on the glass. They make snails seem so "1980."
 
blazehok68

blazehok68

Active Member
i think that if you put 2 in a sand bed that isnt big enough, they will actually start fighting and one will die. ive never experienced this, i just read it somewhere.
 
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