- Location
- Hicksville, NY
...and I guess I'm paying the price 
Hello all. Merry Belated Christmas. I've been off the board for a while, hope everyone is doing well.
I established my 46g soft coral reef tank about 2-3 years ago with really fine "sugar sand". I was told by a local LFS to NOT rinse it. I filled the tank very slowly with my RO/DI system so it didn't stir the bottom up too much. When the tank was filled I added salt, then ran the filtration system for a few days before I started cycling the tank.
It's been a few years now and I noticed that the times between when I stir my sand and the time I get brown gunk on it is getting less and less. This tells me my sandbed is "gunked up" and needs to be siphoned/cleaned.
Problem is, every time I stir the sand, I get these clouds of dust throughout the tank. It's a real eyesore and it gets all over the LR and corals.
I WANT to use one of those gravel filters, but with the sand being so fine it would probably just suck all the sand right up. This way, I might even be able to return the water right back into the tank, as my Diatom filter always "polishes" the water crystal-clear.
I was considering using my Vortex Diatom filter as the "intake" pump and putting a valve inline so I could really dial-down the suction pressure to be just enough to get the sand tumbling, but not enough to suck up anything other than the dust and mulm.
Is this a good idea? Is it worth cleaning this sand, or should I just try to suck it all out and put new, WASHED coarser sand (such as aragonite) on the bottom? PS - I might as well tell you I made the "rookie" mistake of putting all my LR ON TOP of the sand instead of the bottom, so I will not be able to take all the sand out around the LR without it shifting and possibly colliding with the glass :irked:
Any advice here? Anyone else have sugar sand bottoms?
Thanks to all for reading and for any help with this!
Hello all. Merry Belated Christmas. I've been off the board for a while, hope everyone is doing well.
I established my 46g soft coral reef tank about 2-3 years ago with really fine "sugar sand". I was told by a local LFS to NOT rinse it. I filled the tank very slowly with my RO/DI system so it didn't stir the bottom up too much. When the tank was filled I added salt, then ran the filtration system for a few days before I started cycling the tank.
It's been a few years now and I noticed that the times between when I stir my sand and the time I get brown gunk on it is getting less and less. This tells me my sandbed is "gunked up" and needs to be siphoned/cleaned.
Problem is, every time I stir the sand, I get these clouds of dust throughout the tank. It's a real eyesore and it gets all over the LR and corals.
I WANT to use one of those gravel filters, but with the sand being so fine it would probably just suck all the sand right up. This way, I might even be able to return the water right back into the tank, as my Diatom filter always "polishes" the water crystal-clear.
I was considering using my Vortex Diatom filter as the "intake" pump and putting a valve inline so I could really dial-down the suction pressure to be just enough to get the sand tumbling, but not enough to suck up anything other than the dust and mulm.
Is this a good idea? Is it worth cleaning this sand, or should I just try to suck it all out and put new, WASHED coarser sand (such as aragonite) on the bottom? PS - I might as well tell you I made the "rookie" mistake of putting all my LR ON TOP of the sand instead of the bottom, so I will not be able to take all the sand out around the LR without it shifting and possibly colliding with the glass :irked:
Any advice here? Anyone else have sugar sand bottoms?
Thanks to all for reading and for any help with this!
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