Cleaning My Sand Bottom Tank

Goriley · 04/01/2015, 05:43 PM

In my 8 gallon saltwater, I currently have very fine blue sand. When I decide to clean my tank I find it very hard to clean the excess dirt, fecal matter, and left over food. Is there any suggestions other than syphoning since it sucks up all the sand? I have 2 turbo snails, 2 hermits and 1 peppermint shrimp to help, but I just feel like it should be more clean when I look at the bottom of the tank.

jem454 · 04/02/2015, 01:50 AM

Maybe add some more flow to keep everything suspended.

MJV0103 · 04/02/2015, 08:30 AM

Flow maybe your only option if you want to keep such a fine grain of sand. have you tried a smaller siphon?

ShannyG · 04/02/2015, 12:22 PM

When I had a small 5g tank I would do water changes with a great deal of enthusiasm. It helps to stir up the crud on the bottom so it can be picked up by mechanical filtration. Won't work if you're just running a protein skimmer but it made a big difference.

deleau · 04/02/2015, 12:30 PM

I've seen some experienced reef maintenance folks work wonders with those gravel vacs. It seems to be a lot of art mixed with some science in regards to lifting the tube above the sand and using your off hand to kink the hose to restrict flow. You may just try a bit of practice (you can always just dump it right back in your DT to see if you can suck up cloudy water with little or no sand.

tzylak · 04/02/2015, 12:40 PM

Right before changing water consider running you fingers thru the top layer of sand to stir up the detritus, but gently enough to keep the sand down and CUC safe. Let the filtration and protein skimmer pick up the crud. Repeat the stirring it necessary. Finally, change the water and clean the filters.

Kidd Reef · 04/02/2015, 12:45 PM

Could also throw some Nassarius snails in there to keep the sand stirred and munch on some of the Detritus. my LFS even has a particulary tiny species(think smallest size blue leg hermit.) that would be great for something like an 8 gallon

04/01/2015, 05:43 PM	#1
Goriley Registered Member Join Date: Apr 2015 Location: Canada Posts: 38	Cleaning My Sand Bottom Tank In my 8 gallon saltwater, I currently have very fine blue sand. When I decide to clean my tank I find it very hard to clean the excess dirt, fecal matter, and left over food. Is there any suggestions other than syphoning since it sucks up all the sand? I have 2 turbo snails, 2 hermits and 1 peppermint shrimp to help, but I just feel like it should be more clean when I look at the bottom of the tank.

04/02/2015, 12:30 PM	#5
deleau Registered Member Join Date: Jun 2009 Location: Oklahoma City Posts: 367	I've seen some experienced reef maintenance folks work wonders with those gravel vacs. It seems to be a lot of art mixed with some science in regards to lifting the tube above the sand and using your off hand to kink the hose to restrict flow. You may just try a bit of practice (you can always just dump it right back in your DT to see if you can suck up cloudy water with little or no sand. __________________ "The plural of anecdote is not data." Current Tank Info: 258g (72.5x30x27.5), 4x Radion Gen3 Pro, 2x Hamilton Aruba Sun V Series (4x Blue Plus 80W), 2x Vortech MP40WQD, Apex Gold + WXM, Dreambox 5d, Bubble King Supermarin 200, Red Dragon 3 150W, Tunze 3155, Finnex Ti 800W

04/02/2015, 12:45 PM	#7
Kidd Reef Registered Member Join Date: Jan 2015 Posts: 139	Could also throw some Nassarius snails in there to keep the sand stirred and munch on some of the Detritus. my LFS even has a particulary tiny species(think smallest size blue leg hermit.) that would be great for something like an 8 gallon __________________ The Reefing kid

04/02/2015, 01:50 AM	#2
jem454 Registered Member Join Date: Dec 2006 Location: ny Posts: 86	Maybe add some more flow to keep everything suspended.

04/02/2015, 08:30 AM	#3
MJV0103 Registered Member Join Date: Feb 2015 Location: DC Metro Area Posts: 228	Flow maybe your only option if you want to keep such a fine grain of sand. have you tried a smaller siphon?

04/02/2015, 12:22 PM	#4
ShannyG Registered Member Join Date: Oct 2014 Posts: 212	When I had a small 5g tank I would do water changes with a great deal of enthusiasm. It helps to stir up the crud on the bottom so it can be picked up by mechanical filtration. Won't work if you're just running a protein skimmer but it made a big difference.

04/02/2015, 12:40 PM	#6
tzylak Registered Member Join Date: Aug 2014 Location: Oceanside, CA Posts: 457	Right before changing water consider running you fingers thru the top layer of sand to stir up the detritus, but gently enough to keep the sand down and CUC safe. Let the filtration and protein skimmer pick up the crud. Repeat the stirring it necessary. Finally, change the water and clean the filters.