How do I keep my sandbed clean?

[esears]

Hi, my wife and I have had our tank up for about 2 months now. The biggest problem we are having so far is keeping the sandbed clean. I'm thinking the LR wasn't quite cured when we put it in and that is contributing greatly to the problem. Going to probably take it out today and put it in another tank to see if anything else dies off. But back to the other problem. With a skimmer and sump, how do I keep my sandbed clean and not develop these awful patches of brown from where the detritus falls onto it? Is increasing flow through the tank my only option? Thanks!

 

[matts125]

Get rid of the sandbed. It will only cause you problems if not now later..


Matt

 

[MikeS]

Hi

What type of water are you using? In a tank as new as yours, my first guess would be that the "brown patches" you are seeing are likely diatom blooms, (esp. if you are using tap water) however, it could be other things as well.

Increasing flow across the bed is always a good idea, as is using mechanical filtration, skimming, and water changes with RO/DI water. Removing as much waste as you can from the system before it has a chance to be used by algae, diatoms, and cyano is about the only effective long term solution to dealing with such pesky problems...

MikeS

 

[Krish]

Hi esears! Welcome to Rf if I haven't welcomed you already About the sandbed, I use to have a sand bed, but decided to go the bare bottom route. The reason why was because I couldn't point my flow where I wanted because it would push the sand everywhere. With a newly setup tank, you will get diatoms on your sand though, but with time will eventually go away. If your tank is shedding detritus, and it is settling on your sand bed, then you'd want to probably add more flow or reposition what you have. It isn't so much how much flow you have, but how well placed it is. You want your flow to keep all detritus in the water column so that it can be removed by mechanical filtration or by a skimmer. In some cases, even kept in the water column long enough for corals to make good use of it. So I would work on the flow a bit, to see if you can accomplish this, but in any event, your tank is still young and will take a little time for it to stabilize...HTH

 

[Elmo18]

2 months is a young tank for sure

Best,
Ilham

 

[Matthew]

Hi,

Try adding a sand sifting star fish. Also check your water, make sure your levels are not out of whack...

 

[Sherman]

esears, please take any advice as that, advice, and not gospel truth. PaulB, a member here has had a sandbed for 35 years! This is the currently most heated debate, sand versus barebottom. Beautiful (and old!) tanks are kept all over the world that have a sand bed. There is also a growing trend toward barebottom. Let's hope this topic isn't discussed any further here.

I'd also recommend looking into flow. I have 48x flow (meaning the amount of gallons per hour of all my combined flow is 48x that of the tank volume), and sand. You may want to consider sand foragers. Hermits are real good about this. I have had over 75 hermits in my tank before, though I'm currently as low as probably 30, in a 38g tank. They're really good about sifting through the sand.

And the advice about a young tank is good. It took my tank several months to stabilize and sandbed to whiten, and a whole year for the rocks to turn the right colors. The cliche trademarks of this hobby are patience and time.

 

[esears]

Yep, thats what I figured. I just wanted to make sure it wasn't something that I was doing wrong. Probably gonna go out and see what else I can find to improve the flow since right now there really isn't anything.

And we do have a sand shifting starfish in the already. He is about 6 inches across or so but really doesn't seem to be making a difference?

 

[Krish]

Yep, thats what I figured. I just wanted to make sure it wasn't something that I was doing wrong. Probably gonna go out and see what else I can find to improve the flow since right now there really isn't anything.

And we do have a sand shifting starfish in the already. He is about 6 inches across or so but really doesn't seem to be making a difference?

What do you have so far for flow and in what size tank? About the sand sifting starfish, I know some brittle starts I had, would rather eat leftovers than work about my sand(LOL) I guess that helped a bit because nothing was wasted. But yeah, your tank will come around and stabilize hopefully soon. Sand is a really cool look and I liked it. I just didn't like meeting it all over my rocks from the flow so, I removed it. SSb, BB, DSB all experience diatoms...

 

[Paul B]

esears, if you did not get a diatom bloom in a 2 month old tank something would be wrong. It is normal and in time it will all straighten out. You may even get an algae bloom in a few months, same advice, give it time.
And enjoy your new tank. These things that you are experiencing are not problems, they are the things that make this hobby interesting. If all always went well, it would be called stamp collecting.
Have a great day.
Paul

 

[mojoreef]

Yea I would have to agree with Paul that what you are experencing is fairly normal, and to be honest you should experence if you ran a sand bed or went BB. When you first setup your tank and introduce decaying material (if stuff dieing on the LR or a died prawn) you are trying to build up the differing populations of bacteria. Basically from amonia reducers and on donw the line. Once these poulations have been built up thier is a natural flux or a bunch of the different kinds of bacteria die off as thier is not as much food available to support each kind of population. From thier the resulting die off creates available food for algae (johnny on the spot). Once it uses the food it will begin to die off and once again the bacteria will bloom.Look at it as kind of a pendulum swinging from bacterial bloom to algae bloom with each swing of the pendulum getting smaller as the food is burned off as energy or exported through harvest. Once this pendulum stops swinging you will reach an equalibrium and all should be fine. We call the period you are in right now "The uglies"


Mike

 

[Paul B]

Yeah, what he said. Only he said it with much more finesse.:lol:
(hello there Mike)
Take care.
Paul

 

[esears]

Going to try and post some pictures just to share a bit. Everyone here has been great in explaining this hobby and both my wife and I highly appreciate it!

Still trying to figure out how to make the pictures look better but I'm sure that will come with practice. Thanks again!

 

[Paul B]

esears, try not using a flash and turn off your actinic lights if you have them. Sometimes they make things flouress in the picture.
I take all pictures without any flash. Turn off all other lights in the room and all circulation in the tank.
This picture was taken this way. If I used a flash it would be horrable.
Your tank is coming along. Good luck and have fun.
Paul

 

[mojoreef]

Sherm buddy.

PaulB, a member here has had a sandbed for 35 years! This is the currently most heated debate, sand versus barebottom.

Their is no debate Sherman BB and DSB tanks are what they are and do what they do. The only arguement that tends to come out if that is when folks on either side tend to streech the truth a bit. When it comes to peoples tanks every one needs to understand that we all approach this hobby in different ways and all of us have different likes and dislikes. For me if a person likes the looks of sand in thier tank its a done deal, all I can do is to help them understand how it works so they have a fighting chance. It is a personal hobby after all.
Oh yea Paul doesnt have a DSB, its a reverse under gravel filter that uses sponges to collect detritus...Oh yea and the beer bottle to,

Howdy back Paul


Mike

 

[Gimpster]

For my small tank a cave goby is doing a fine job keeping the sand stired up with all his sand sifting and cave building.

 

[shallowreef]

I use 3 Sand Sifters in my 90. Plus hermit crabs. plus my sand is constantly blowing around from my pumps.

 

[Krish]

I like the look of your tank so far esears. Just wanted to add that here