for those that have a deep sand bed, how do you clean it? how often, how deep do you clean and what do you get out of it.
I clean my Plenum sand bed every few months. If I remember to. I do a syphon of the gravel and get lots of gunky old detrisis and fine dust from scraping the glass, out of it. gray/green mud. it cleans the sytem right up. then the corals perk up.
Ok thanks in the 7 years I’ve had the tank I only cleaned the surface. Only cleaned it like ten times in that time. I just cleaned the entire front third. It was pretty gunky lol. Hope it works out. Mine is not a plenum. Just 5"-8" dsb. Maybe 4"-7"
If you have a DSB and not plenum Dunk, I don’t think it s good idea to syphon the sand at all. Rosti has a DSB and I remember he stated that not to bother the DSB at all and to just add more critters to oxygenated the sand. Maybe Rosti will chime in to explain why.
Tim, you definitely do NOT have a dsb, which should be about 6" deep or more, and, as ken says, remain undisturbed by humans.
It is a dsb moliken. At least in the back it is I did siphon and clean it up I am just frustrated with the algae on the bed. But maybe the front section isn’t considered dsb but I thought a dsb was 4"-6" a place to house anaerobic bacteria for nitrate removal. Really though its much deeper now that I vacuumed it. I thought that a dsb system could crash and it’s recommended to replace sections of it
well, if you have very fine sand, it can be anerobic less than an inch below the surface. it cuts off oxygenation that fast. all the coraline you scrub off the glass with the magnet scrapers is like a fine powder that fills in the small spaces between even the fine sand. makes it muddy. plus, it was alive and has lots of organics in it.
I have aragonite so it’s a mix but pretty coarse. I always get that algae film on the glass like every day and the red on the sand bed. Today I noticed not as much on the glass I hope the cleaning helped it’s also very bright now
[quote=“dunk, post:8, topic:4431”]
I have aragonite so it’s a mix but pretty coarse. I always get that algae film on the glass like every day and the red on the sand bed. Today I noticed not as much on the glass I hope the cleaning helped it’s also very bright now[/quote]
where’s rosti, the dsb keeper. his granules are much finer than yours.
Rosti!!! Where r u!
[quote=“dunk, post:1, topic:4431”]
for those that have a deep sand bed, how do you clean it? how often, how deep do you clean and what do you get out of it.[/quote]
Hi Dunk, looks like thats cyanobacretia on top of your sand bed. DSB should not be disturbed or cleaned and especially not vacuumed. Here is why, DSB processes all the leftover (end of the food webs) nutrients. Bacteria in sand bed will form but it needs food and oxygen delivered to it. All the critters that leave in sand bed layers process (eat) food and deliver it to next layer and next and next. Bacteria that leaves in all those layers also eats all that food, but it needs oxygen, which is also delivered by all those critters. All those layers will form by the critters and bacteria leaving in it and any disturbance is distractive to their ecosystem, so denitrification process stops. Note that if lets say snail dies in sand bed, bacteria will be there to eat it but it will soon run out of oxygen and will start to remove oxygen from other compounds and turn that compounds into sulfate. Sulfate is the black deposits that occur in DSB, very poisonous to all leaving beings and once formed and disturbed will crash (kill) everything in the tank. Also when bacteria eats it produces “glue” around it and without all those critters in DSB stirring it up, that glue will glue sand grains together, making sand bed not effective.
So vacuuming DSB will remove all those good critters, disturb all the bacteria layering. Same is adding sand sifting starfish is not good because it eats all those good critters, and while moving it does turns over sand bed, but it’s only temporary solution and its like sweeping stuff under carpet. The reason sand grains are important is that critters that leave in our aquariums prefer very specific grain size to leave and reproduce. Dr. Shimek recommends ± .063 mm, sugar fine sand. Food (detritus)that makes it to the sand bed will not clog it up if there is a critter there ready to eat it, poop it out for next critter or bacteria to eat it. All that food is processed all the way down to “nothing”.
So Dunk you may need to add some critters and let nature take its corse. Cyano will disappear and will move and form its own layers in sand bed, and will be ready to receive food (nitrate and phosphate) it this case. Another note, try to leave sand bed clear for most part. Cyano bacteria and other photosynthetic bacteria need light to photosynthesize. So every invert. we put on DSB is another decrease to its function. Need to find a balance.
Huh wow. So what would consider my setup it is like 3-6 inches deep of aragonite I didn’t know that much about dsb. It seems ok for the first 7 Do I technically have a dsb or is it normal also I did vac it yesterday it just looked very crappy I siphoned some out and replaced it which lasted a few weeks then it comes back. Also have to clean glass everyday. I have two or three cucumbers 4 fighting conch a serpent star a bunch of nassarius and ceriths. I only cleaned the front third of the tank. So hope it’ll be ok. But now like moliken stated might not be a real dsb it’s like a hybrid. My 75 fuge has sugar sand and is deep. Any suggestions would be appreciated. Thanks in advance.
I guess its still a DSB and looks like you being successful with it for many years, you tank looks nice. I am not sure what to recommend to get rid of cyano on top of sand bed. BTW disturbing top one inch and cleaning just front of sand bed is OK.
Here is few good reads:
http://forum.marinedepot.com/Topic115113-11-1.aspx?Highlight=DSB+vacuum
http://forum.marinedepot.com/Topic110731-11-1.aspx?Highlight=DSB+cleaning
I would start by looking at DSB all around your tank and take picture so we can discuss it further. How much live is in there, maybe will need to add some:)
Well took pics and I can’t load them the forums running very slow
rosti, when i was at yr house, i thought you told me that it wasnt’ just depth that made a dsb, but it was just as much grain size. ive seen dunk’s setup. sand my sand bed’s size regular aragonite. he also has at least the last 1/3 of the width of the back of the tank completely rock covered, so there’s no photosynthesis going on. just depth does not make a dsb, right or wrong?? last, if tim had a real dsb running for this long, disturbing it that much would defly be harmful???
btw, the tank is simply gorgeous, clean and healthy. he should take a decent fts.
