Water change question

[kattz]

When you guys and gals do a water change, do you use one of those "vacuum siphons" to clean out the sand the way freshwater tank gravel is cleaned? 

[Blown76mav]

I vacume the sandbed once every 4 water changes, the other times I clean the sump, skimmer etc....  I do my water changes on two week intervals.  On the off weeks I test.

[harleyrider]

Well this depends upon what type of sand bed you have implemented into your system.

If you have installed a deep sand bed to aid with aquarium filtration then no you should not manually clean it. With a deep sand bed the cleaning needs to be performed by what I call critters. These are things like small starfish, micro fauna etc. The burrow through the sand and keep it clean on your behalf – natures cleaners.

If you have a shallow sand bed, use sand for decorative purposes etc then yes you should clean it.

[cyberwollf]

I stir the top layer of sections of my sand regularly.  The "crud" that comes out is execellent coral food.

[Reefinmike]

Ive never "cleaned" my sandbed, every once in a while I will stir up a small part of the sand to clear up some algae or something.

[HUNGER]

i do about a small part but just the top layer about a 4inch by 4inch section every othe watter change but never the whole thing

[Joel]

The substrate in any aquarium needs to be cleaned of debris regularly but how often and how thorough it is going to depend on a few factors.

If the display aquarium has a deep sand bed that is being used as a means of filtration, excessive cleaning of the sand can cause some problems. It does need to be cleaned from time to time but should be done in small steps. When I kept deep sand beds in the display aquarium, I would very thoroughly vacuum a small area, like 1/4 of the sand bed all the way down to the bottom glass every 2 or 3 months but mostly leave the rest of the sand bed alone. I'd skim the very top level of the rest of sand bed to remove debris during my weekly or bi weekly water changes but mostly for appearance sake. With this method, the undisturbed portion of the sand bed kept the aquarium stable while minor damage caused to the area I vacuumed had time to recover until I vacuumed the next area. (couple months or so later) I found that if I left the sand alone (didn't ever clean it) it eventually developed so much organic matter that I started having problems maintaining proper water quality. I agree that the bugs / worms & bacteria do a wonderful job at keeping it clean but even they leave left overs behind that accumulates over time. An organic laden sand bed eventually becomes a nutrient sink.

If an aquarium has a remote deep sand bed (RDSB) or some other means of natural nitrate reduction (NNR) as a part of its filtration and has a sand or gravel bed in the aquarium mostly for appearance sake, I see no reason you should not vacuum the sand / gravel bed often. In the aquarium, the sand / gravel bed doesn't have protection from organic particles settling in it. Removing these particles while doing water changes can help keep the aquarium cleaner and help in maintaining long term proper water quality. Compare it to any other area in your aquarium that accumulates organic debris ( fish food, fish waste, etc.) like a filter pad or sponge. Even though there are bacterial colonies and bugs / worms living in and on our filter pads & sponges, we still clean the regularly to keep the water quality in good shape, same should apply to any other area that accumulates debris as well. We got to remember that even though all these naturally occurring organisms are important and play a big roll in water quality management, they mostly consume and convert waste into more broken down waste and leave some left overs that are going to accumulate over time. Everything we can do to remove these organics before and during the breaking down process removes the opportunity for these to leave unwanted leftovers we don't want( mostly nitrates )

With a  RDSB we have much better control over debris getting into the sand bed. Mechanical filtration can and should be performed prior to water getting to the RDSB, so should protein skimming if that is an option. A RDSB can function with little to no maintenance if the system is designed where the water getting to it is very clean & free of debris. If some organic material is getting to the RDSB, which is typically the case, it can be treated the same as a deep sand bed in an aquarium with partial deep cleaning every few months or so.

I don't think there is just 1 way or method to clean the sand beds we keep but I believe that it is important that we keep our sand beds clean and that we do it a little at a time if the sand bed is playing a major roll in water management.

Joel

[starfishprime]

I have a DSB, and the one thing I read about constantly is the risk of building up nitrogen bubbles in the SB. Is there any way to tell or prevent this?