Sifting sand bed

[madlynb]

I have read in a couple threads about it being good to occasionally sift and stir the sand bed. Small areas at a time. If this is so, what is the process used to do this? I was always with the understanding that stirring up the sand bed would affect the bio filtration of the tank. Looking for your opinions.:?

 

[daugherty]

i never touch my sand. i will skim the top when i do a water change but i do use snail for stiring the sand naturallly

 

[lilyicu]

A large majority of my sand bed is covered by my LR so when I do my water changes I siphon the sand around the outside of the tank to stir it up and to also clean the top layer.

 

[sen5241b]

I sift my and with a spoon once a month a small area every few days. Detritus does get released from the sand when I do this. Some have lost their tank because the sand became a big detritus trap.

 

[Bifferwine]

I don't mess with my sand bed. That's what my cleaner crew is for.

 

[XxKnuckleheadxX]

i dont touch my sand bed either, same as biff, thats why my cleaner crew is for and i also have a sand sifting starfish.

 

[Piggy]

I don't touch mine. That's why I have a cleaning crew, Tanks been stable since I set it up.

 

[daugherty]

its like playing with fire you are going to get burned sometime when playing with it. one time you mess with the sand it is going to make you tank crash even if for the last year you have been messin with it.

 

[sen5241b]

its like playing with fire you are going to get burned sometime when playing with it. one time you mess with the sand it is going to make you tank crash even if for the last year you have been messin with it.

If stirring your sand bed causes a crash then the problem is not stirring the sand. The problem is that you have too much crud in the sand to begin with. My nassarius snails DO NOT adequately stir the sand. They barely bury themselves and then come straight up at feeding time. Even gobies and blennys tend to stir up only the surface sand. Sand beds can become a detritus trap and just leaving it alone is only going to make it worse-- every heard of hydrogen sulfide? If you have a DSB in a fuge with no livestock then I would think that not much detritus will settle in there. Just moments before I read this, I stirred a small section of my sand bed and a few minutes later I smell something bad coming out of the tank and I can see grayish crud rising up and going into the filter where it belongs.

I read on another site that somebody drained a tank to get a fish out, When they pumped the water back in, it stirred the detritus up out of the sand -causing an ammonia spike and killing everything!

If you have a way, besides stirring the sand, to prevent the bed from collecting too much detritus then great.

 

[daugherty]

you use fine sand and that is the pourpos of haveing sand is for to to complete the nitrigion cycle you can not naturally (besides macro alage which take time and cannot get rid of a lot) get rid of nitrate unless it occurs in a no oxygen enviroment and stirring the sand will never let that happen Just my 2 cents

 

[sen5241b]

you use fine sand and that is the pourpos of haveing sand is for to to complete the nitrigion cycle you can not naturally (besides macro alage which take time and cannot get rid of a lot) get rid of nitrate unless it occurs in a no oxygen enviroment and stirring the sand will never let that happen Just my 2 cents

I don't disagree with that and yet sand CAN become a big detritus trap. Its happened to people.

There are some experts who have recently called into question the usefulness of DSBs. I have no use for them.

Reef Central Online Community - New Nitrate theory

 

[yote]

It all boils down to how deep the sand is.
If your sand bed in like 1" to 1-1/2" Then your alright to kinda stir it,As long as its done often.
With a DSB,4"+ then there are gas pockets that can and will build up.If those gas pockets are released all at once,then the tank water becomes poison.Effectly killing eveything in it.
Thats why is better to have something nature to stir the sand.That way if any gas is released,its just a small bit usually wont even be noticed.
My sand is only about an inch deep,but I never touch it myself.Thats what my Dragon Sleeper Goby and Conchs are for.

 

[daugherty]

I don't disagree with that and yet sand CAN become a big detritus trap. Its happened to people.

There are some experts who have recently called into question the usefulness of DSBs. I have no use for them.

Reef Central Online Community - New Nitrate theory

it is just a theory it is not a proven fact yet i remember posting that link here when it first started but so many people have ran dsb's for years with no problems so this theory has flaws i have had a DSB in both my tanks and in my new one i have a plenum my alk cal and mag are always stable my ph never drops under 8.0 my DKH is always around 9 and cal is around 500 the only thing i dose is kalk to help precipate phosphate. and that is only a couple time a week.

 

[sen5241b]

Mine is no more than 2 inches and I stir only very small sections at a time, like a couple inches at most. I wait a few days before stirring it again. When I do I can see detritus coming out of it. My sand stays nice and white. I can't see just letting the sand collect gunk forever and just leaving it alone. But -hey- if you have a system that works --leave well enough alone.