sand/detritus maintenance

[johnsmb]

Last night I transferred my 25 gallon over into my new 75. First I poured in a 20 pound bag of live sand. I planned on adding the 20 pounds of sand from my 25, too. No way! That stuff was nasty, nothing but a cloud of detritus.

My 25 was up for almost a year, but it wasn't until recently that I learned about stirring the sand and blowing off the liverocks. But, my problem was that it would all settle back down before much got sucked out in the protein skimmer.

So, my thought is that I will keep a very shallow send bed and try to remove more of the detritus. I don't have a sump - but I am thinking of getting a magnum 350 canister filter so that I can use the diatom filter about once a month when I stir the sand and blow the detritus from the rocks. I am really hoping that it will pull the gunk out before it settles back down - any experience with this?

Next question - Is it possible to go bare bottom on a low-tech/basic tank? No sump, I only use powerheads and a HOB skimmer. I know most people use spray bars and closed loops and things - but couldn't you just put a few powerheads aimed at the bottom to keep things in circulation?

Before removing the sand, I would like to try the magnum for periodic water polishing and see if that works..... any thoughts or advice? thanks.

 

[jmaxwell]

I think you would be fine going bare bottom. Just make sure you can access the detritus that collects on the bottom and remove it periodically. I do it along w/ small water change every couple of months. I just use 1/2 inch tubing and syphon it out. I have found that any sand on the bottom seems to act as a detritus trap in the systems I have had.

Jim

Jim

 

[NaH2O]

johnsmb - it is amazing at how much detritus there is in a sand bed, isn't it? Also, the amount that comes off of live rock...turkey baster is a good friend to LR.

There are a few people on the board that use a diatom filter. Witfull uses one, but I'm not sure what his schedule is for it. I thought Scooterman used one as well. If you do a search on the board for diatom + filter, you will get a few results.

You could use a couple of power heads strategically aimed at the bottom of the tank to help with the bare bottom situation, and that will probably be a trial and error thing (try it on one location see how it does...move it to try in another location, etc). When you do your water changes, do as Jim stated, and siphon the detritus areas up, or you can blow at the bottom of the tank with a power head to get the gunk that collected back into the water column to be removed.