Stirring sand bed

[tdgates10]

Is stirring up your sand bed a good idea?

 

[tike]

How deep is it?

 

[tdgates10]

1.5" to 2" deep.

 

[treehugger]

I stir mine with a chopstick every now and again. My sand bed is about 3-3.5 inches deep. It makes the water pretty cloudy but keeps the sand from turning to cement. All of the nassarius snails help keep it in check as well. I've never really had a problem from doing this IME.

 

[ronj]

i wouldn't stir it.. i would vacuum it when doing water changes, but i wouldn't stir it up and release a bunch of junk into the water column

 

[mmkeeper]

Stir it and have a sock on your overflow or a cannister filter to pull the crap out for a few hour can't hurt.

 

[tdgates10]

I've been stirring it and then skimming real wet for a couple days afterwards. It seems that you would want to stir it and keep the crap out rather than in?

 

[Bainic]

Well I know a little bit about DSB's and I don't believe that your sand bed is deep enough to really help with keeping nitrates down. From that point of view, I would stir it to keep the detrius from becoming a nitrate trap.

 

[Krish]

If it were me, I'd siphon right through that sand bed when doing water changes. 1.5-2 inches isn't deep enough to be considered a deep sand bed so I'd get out all of the nasties that may get lost in the sand bed before it causes a nutrient issue later