Want to clean up sand bed... dont wanna crash... 😱

[Luke_L]

I want to clean up the sand bed.. years of fish breaking off sticks, led lenses falling in, clean up crew dying. I cant simply reach the bottom... tweezers would be painstakingly long. it's a mess. I bought a kitty litter sifter from dollar store .. if I dont sift too deep think I can get away with it? 2 inch deep bed... current po4 is .03ppm, current nitrate is 1ppm...

 

[Luigi]

It's not going to crash,
Unless you oxigenate properly ...
Once you stirr that sand something is going to react with all the dust and nutrients make sure you have a water change ready
I wish I had 2" of sand before last crash I will make a video or pictures on How to properly clean the sand

 

[Cliff]

Do you have any black layers in your sand? If you have black layers that could be trapped hydrogen sulfide. That Stuff is brutal on the tank if disturbed

 

[Luigi]

Well that's one of the reasons when I said have a water change ready once you open those pockets guess where is going?

 

[Al B]

So let the debate begin.....Bare bottom, shallow bed, hybrid with bare / shallow bed, or deep......What do you favor and why?

 

[Cliff]

I like sand dwelling fish and inverts. So for me that means I need to keep a sand bed

 

[Limey]

I have always preferred the sanded 2" plus. As this increases the surface area of the tank bottom so the bacteria allows time between water changes without to much worry of pollution.

 

[Luke_L]

Water change is now ready.... no black layers... i'm going to try it.... mabey only a quarter of it at a time or something...
i will let you know how i make out.....

i am willing to bet i can fill half of a 5 gallon pail..... with frags and shells

 

[Luigi]

well ok ..
*-I had a deep sand bed Plenum in my 90G with reef sand for 10 years,
untill my regal angel discoverd that digging the sand will bring up pelletts that were not eaten and copepods ,
was a month from that discovery that I had the first crash of my life,
-*then I went bare bottom only rubbles ,not too bad I was vaccuming reguralrly
-*for the 125 bare bottom for a few years coralline algea everywhere..some how I had a big crash
lost 15 fish and 80% of corals..
-* las year resurrection 2 inches of sugar sand, 1/2 the of the rocks are gone huge swimming areas,
love this look just that the gyro makes a clean centre of the tank,and I have to push back once a month
in one year the sand gets stirred enogh Can't build crap under neat ( also I have a sand stirring Diamond goby)

 

[Luigi]

Hi Al we should start another thread for this