Syphoning gravel

[josh88]

Ok so I'm about syphon my sand, its about 2" deep. And the last time I did a water change I add mixed water in the tank as a way to bring my sg up. And its been pretty steady, so this time should I just add RO/DI back instead of premixed

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[Krish]

If you remove water from the tank then saltwater has to go back in, but if you top off from say evaporation then just fresh water is added as salt doesn't evaporate.


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[NWDiver]

What Krish said!
Be gentle when you syphon the sand, most people say to just clean up the top layer.

 

[josh88]

Yeah that's what worries me its a shallow sand bed. I got a syphon that causes the sand to drop. But sucks lighter material up. I'll take a before and after pic. Thanks again

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[dnjan]

If you are actually lifting and then dropping the sand, you are probably siphoning all the critters out of it.
I would only do that to 1/4 to 1/3 of the sand area at a time.

 

[Shane and John]

It is very important to be very gentle with your substrate. Make sure that your make up water matches salinity, temp, and ph.

I always try to replace the water slowly a well to try to minimize shock on my livestock.

This has always worked well for me.

 

[mwebber28]

Great question as I was wondering about this myself.

I used to syphon my substrate with each water change and while my gravel was clean my copepod population dwindeled to almost nothing. I stoped and they took off again.

I currently just have a sand sifting star and he does a pretty good job I think. My gravel gets a bit brown by the end of the lighting day but its always clean in the morning when the lights come on. I was thinking about adding a sand sifting gobbie but heard they eat everything in the sand, similar to syphoning.

My nitrates/ nitrites are at zero and my phos is being controled by my reactor. While I have no intention of starting the syphoning pratice again I do fear an overload of nasties in my tank.

Would it be advisable to just syphon every two or three months?

 

[dnjan]

You should be able to tell the locations where your water flow pattern allows detritus to accumulate.

First option would be to regularly blast those locations with a turkey baster to get the stuff back in suspension (and hopefully carried into your overflow).
But I don't see a problem with periodically siphoning the surface detritus from small areas in your tank.

 

[mojoreef]

Make sure you give your rock work a blast with the siphon/powerhead to you would be surprised how much detritus settles out on it.

Mike

 

[josh88]

I heard that sand sifting stars are worse than syphoning. They attack good bacteria, and search for what ever life is living in your sand. Just what I heard

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[Krish]

I heard that sand sifting stars are worse than syphoning. They attack good bacteria, and search for what ever life is living in your sand. Just what I heard

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Just plug your ears man. .

The only disadvantage I can see sand sifting stars creating to bacteria is by digging too deep into a sandbed if it is a deep sand bed. By doing this, they will mess with the anaerobic zone which is a no no. They won't necessarily be attacking bacteria per say, but rather disrupting their environment (anaerobic zone the bacteria need) which consequently inadvertantly affects them.


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[dnjan]

Somehow I would think that environment would be unpleseant for the sifting star as well.

 

[josh88]

Yes so what about the shallow samd bad in which I have.

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[Derbird]

I've had a 2" sandbed established since September. I went with a shallow bed because the anaerobic zone kept me up at night durring the planing stages. I have a sand sifting star and a dragon goby to sift the sand and have no ill effects that I can see. I still have a decent pod population but I think my fuge has a lot to do with that.

 

[josh88]

How big do those stars get?. Cause I have a 28 gal

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[Derbird]

Mine is about 4" accross in a 125. A 28 might not offer enough sand for the little guy. Maby a sand sifting conch would be a better fit but I think we will need some nano guru to chime in here.

 

[Derbird]

Yea according to Liveaquaria sand sifting stars can get up to a foot accross so I don't thing its good in a 28gallon My tank might even be too small

 

[totem420]

i have cerith snails in my 16 gal nano, they burrow under the sand and stir it up. i have never syphoned my sand, i do it in my freshwater tank with gravel, i think syphoning the sand is going to make a big mess

 

[N1Husker]

I read on Wetwebmedia that they don't recommend a sand sifting starfish because they will wipe out all the little critters in the san in no time and then starve to death. That's what happened to my sand sifting starfish. After he went throuhj my sand for a few months he started losing his arma and finally died. FYI

 

[josh88]

That's what I thought. Lol

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