cleaning live sand

[kevinohio]

I read a post earlier about not cleaning live sand, By that I mean siphoning when i do a water change.
I however saw it too late I have already vaccumed the sand with the siphon when i did my last water change.
Did this do any damage? I assume I am ok but should just not do it anymore?

[Mavrk]

Your CUC should rebuild itself in time, and your anaerobic area (assuming DSB) will reestablish, plus I bet you did not disturb the entire bed. You may want to watch your levels during this time (especially if you have SUS).

In the future... I agree with the other post that states not to siphon the live sand.

-Mav

[kevinohio]

I assume DSB is a deep sand bed?
Now i may sound dumb but what is a CUC and a SUS?
Thanks

[The0wn4g3]

It depends on how you want to establish the ecosystem in your tank.
If you want to depend on the live sand bed to help in the filtration process; then you must refrain from cleaning it, or only clean a very thin top layer of the sand bed.
If you do not plan on the sand bed functioning as part of the filtration process, it's fine to clean all the sand out. You can think of it as just a bare-bottom system with sand for an aesthetic value.

[kevinohio]

i do want to use the sand as biofiltration. I have about a 2" bed or close. i hope it is enough since i am not sure if i could add more without messing things up. Tanks is already cycled. About 3 and a half months up now.
I have a yellow tang, a lunar wrasse, niger tirgger medium sized and a clow trigger, junvinille about 2" or so now.
75 gallon tank.
I was told 2" deep is ok i hope this is correct.

[Mavrk]

Sorry for the acronyms...

DSB = Deep Sand Bed (usually around 4" deep)

CUC = Clean Up Crew (the "live" in live sand)

I meant SPS, not SUS (typo) = Small Polyped Stoney - hard coral

[The0wn4g3]

2" is fine IMO
It looks as though you are geared more towards and aggressive tank. If you sand gets dirty in the future, just take out the detritus on the top without disturbing the rest of the sand.
If it was my tank honestly I would just siphon the top 1" of the sand each water change, then once clean replace it. I bet a lot of people will disagree with this method, but I did it in my tank for the first year it was setup. I have had no negative effects and it kept my sand clean. Althought I have since built up my biological filtration through my liverock to the point I have to clean my sand every month or so.

This is a very debated topic, so find what works best in your tank and stick with it. Consistency is the key.

[Mavrk]

I'd say with a 2" sandbed it is really up to you. But you did spend time and money for live sand, so you might just let the gobies do the work. You won't hurt anything by suctioning the sand, but you might not get all the benefits live sand offers.

If you were running 4", then things are a little different.

[kevinohio]

but if i wanted to can you add a 4" bed after the tank is up? or not worth it? as for gobies i dont have any.
I currently have the following
yellow tang
lunar wrasse
baby clown trigger
niger trigger
and 2 damsels

For clean up crew i have one small horseshoe crab, 4 large turbo snails, about 10 small mararita snails and 12 or so blue leg small hermits.
Any ideas on more i might need?

[Mavrk]

Sorry, I was looking at The0wn4g3's tank and saw gobies.

You can definately add more sand to an existing tank. In fact, it doesn't even have to be live sand. The live sand will propagate to the new addition eventually. If you want to speed things up, then you could buy some or all of it as live sand. Are you using sugar sized sand (I hope)?

You will get a little sand storm, but that won't hurt anyone. It doesn't look like you have corals, so even if there is a small cycle, it won't really affect anything. That being said, always watch your levels more carefully whenever you make any changes.

I have been out of the "game" for a little while, so I welcome any corrections of course.

-Mav

[kevinohio]

Thanks for the help. i may add more at some point

[dareefking]

Actually, I believe you may want to becareful adding more sand and believe you should do it in small amounts, meaning dont put another inch of sand on top of your existing sand. By doing so I believe you can harm the critters that live closer to the top. Basically burying them. I would recommend if you wanted to add more LS doing it in small amounts so the critters can seed a thin layer as apposed to being buried under an inch+ of sand.

I've just read that on this sight somewhere. Try searching on this topic. The search button doesnt work so great during the day for regular members but works great at night when there arent as many users on.

[Mavrk]

Going slow is always a good idea. I was thinking along the lines that you just vacuumed up a lot of the top critters anyway, but Dareefking is correct (thanks for the catch). After all... speed kills.

-Mav