Substrate Cleaning

[JSweeney76]

Hey everyone. I have a quick question. How often do you siphon and clean your substrate in your reef system? I have a 75 and I've been siphon the substrate every time I do a water change. From people I've been talking to and things I've been reading I think I might be doing something wrong. Everything in the 75 is looking great, but there is always room for improvement. Any input would be appreciated. THanks.
:starfish:

 

[motortrendz]

never.. i fan the top with my hand every once in a while.. dont disturb the sand bed bc it can release toxin into the tank.. it it an anerobic zone that assists in the denitrification process... if you disturb it you can release hydrogen sulfide(i think thats the right hydrogen,if not someone will correct me) into the water causing a bad, woops

 

[JSweeney76]

Really. I knew about the Hydrogen Sulfide issue, but I thought that was for real deep sand beds. I only have 1.5" to 2". Maybe I'm doing it wrong. I mean I don't have a lot of detritus of junk around the bottom and have virtually no dead spots. THanks for the input bro. BTW I sent that item out today.

 

[Lenny718]

I never touch my sand bed, that's what your clean up crew is for

 

[JSweeney76]

Hey that's a good point. What does your clean up crew consist of? I have two sand sifting stars, and some turbo snails. What else should be in there?

 

[motortrendz]

i have or will be getting soon.. but the totals will be 200 nasarious snals(they burow through the sand) 150 blue leg hermits, 50 scarlet hermits 50 mix of pyramid, turbo, mexican turbo snails.. a seahare, as many micro brittle stars as i can get/grow, massive amounts of pods, bristle worms(not by choice but they do do a good job(i said doodoo), 2 fighting conks, 2 sand sifting stars ans 1 or 2 serpant/brittle stars

 

[Lenny718]

In my 45g I have 10 turbo snails, 5 nasarious snails, 10 blue leg hermits and 2 sand sifting stars. I find that the nasarious snails and hermits do the best job on the sand bed while the turbos keep the glass nice and clean

 

[motortrendz]

In my 45g I have 10 turbo snails, 5 nasarious snails, 10 blue leg hermits and 2 sand sifting stars. I find that the nasarious snails and hermits do the best job on the sand bed while the turbos keep the glass nice and clean

cant agree more.. btw i have a 220g thats why my numbers are high..besides, they look really cool at night when the moonlights are on.. the tank has more activity at night than during the day..

 

[JSweeney76]

Looks like I need to get some nasarious and hermits. Thanks.

 

[meherbas]

um well i dont do anything like siphoning cuz my tank is to small i just use chopsticks to loosin it up a lil every week and the rest i leave to the clean up crew aka crabs brittle stars and snails

 

[jcs11236]

i have never touched my sand bed either.

 

[greggnyce]

Mine is shallow so I syphon it. the water that comes out is very dirty.

 

[JSweeney76]

That's part of my dilemma. My sunstalrate is only about 2" deep and when I do siphon it I get A LOT of junk out.


Sent from my iPhone using Reefs

 

[motortrendz]

but you also pulling out usefull bacteria... its not like a FW tank.. where you should syphen the top of the gravel.. but even with FW your not suposed to disturb the bottm

 

[KathyC]

If you have a shallow sandbed - that you know is dirty - better to only do a section at a time during each water change so as not to knock out too much bacterial life all in one shot. It gives the time for the cleaner portions to repopulate with bacteria between cleanings.

Keeping the proper cleaning crew in there, as suggested above, is always a good idea so that it is regularly getting turned over on a regular basis and once it is finally clean, and crud in there will be 'released' back into your water column on a smaller basis to be dealt with by your skimmer.

 

[dubs]

i never touch my sand bed that what the little animals is for .. i dont think there is a guy going around vacuming the reefs every month or when ever so y shound u need to do ur it in ur tank .. along with a clean up crew a dymond goby along with other gobies also help to keep the sand nice an clean also

 

[basiab]

It seems that what you are doing works for you so keep it up. I do not touch mine but that are so many variables it is hard to compare tanks. The proof is in the results.

 

[chuckstyl5]

a diamond goby can help clean your sand bed

 

[JSweeney76]

Kathy - That's a good point. Clean half the tank and then the other the next week.

I had a diamond goby but no matter what I did or what I covered the tank with the damn thing kept jumping out of the tank.

Dubs - You make a good point regarding the reefs not being siphoned, but you really can't compare hundreds of miles of reef with millions of gallons of clean saltwater moving around it to a four foot 75 gallon tank.

I'm going to have to look into another diamond goby and a tighter fitting tank lid. LOL.

 

[SevTT]

Never. If you're using a DSB, you -definitely- don't want to syphon. A sufficient number of substrate-cleaning critters (such as brittle stars, nassarius snails, cerith snails, conches, sea cukes, definitely NOT sand-sifting stars) will take care of fine-grained substrates.