Stirring up the sand
- Thread starter burnin
- Start date
Ditto on the nassarius, cucumber and conchs! I also have some micro stars. Any goby or similar will consume your pods and other sand life over time so I dont recommend. Bristle worms are also good, contrary to some older beliefs. You can get the baby ones online at IdoPac Seafarms or Inland aquatics.
i find my nassarius snails dont stir the sand well enough. i have plenty of deritus in there that keeps feeding cyano and does it regardless of the amount of light or flow i throw at it. if i stir it out it actually sits around looking like a brownish powder. the sand comes alive after i stir it. but i definately believe you need to stir your sand because it will get nasty enough in pockets that no critters want to even get near it.
Stirring the sand is ok..every once in awhile..use a power head..it gets the detritus up and about..its a good thing for the filtration so it could suck it up..it also benefits the filter feeders...My clark clown has a nasty habit of doing this <stirring up the sand>
Well, I'm sure there are about as many opinions on this as there are reefers.
I for one, never touch my sand. I have a 1" bed. I haven't seen a good reason to do so yet. I think that once you get the tank established and get the water quality where you want it, stirring up the sand can only cause problems.
As for keeping the surface clean, my Nassarius snails, which I love, don't do squat. The only time they go in the sand is when they're done eating. They then bury in with only a tube sticking up. I have never seen a Nassarius snail actually stir the sand, other than when coming out or going in. But they don't move in the sand.
So, I'd recommend crabs. Scarletts, I find, are the best. They are constantly eating junk off the top of the sand. My sand is almost the same color as the day I put it in, thanks mostly to crabs.
Good luck
I for one, never touch my sand. I have a 1" bed. I haven't seen a good reason to do so yet. I think that once you get the tank established and get the water quality where you want it, stirring up the sand can only cause problems.
As for keeping the surface clean, my Nassarius snails, which I love, don't do squat. The only time they go in the sand is when they're done eating. They then bury in with only a tube sticking up. I have never seen a Nassarius snail actually stir the sand, other than when coming out or going in. But they don't move in the sand.
So, I'd recommend crabs. Scarletts, I find, are the best. They are constantly eating junk off the top of the sand. My sand is almost the same color as the day I put it in, thanks mostly to crabs.
Good luck
stirring the sand doesnt necessarily mean taking a spatula and stirring...it means the turning of the sand, movement of sand..the nassarius snail in fact does this along with many other creatures. sanddollars, hermit crabs, cucumbers, sand sifting stars, burrowing/prawn gobies..there is a good list....
Nikon, I agree in general with your point. When i say "stirring", I'm referring to some folks' practice of siphoning the substrate, etc.. I read a post on another forum of a guy who vacuumed his substrate every week or so because the guy at the LFS told him to.
As for any effect the Nassarius have on a tank because they dig down to hide, I'd guess it was negligable.
Cheers
As for any effect the Nassarius have on a tank because they dig down to hide, I'd guess it was negligable.
Cheers
I believe, now atleast, that stirring the sand is critical to long term sand bed use. Long term being years 5+. Detritus WILL fill the bed eventually even with refilled sand bed critters. A powerhead will work but is a little to powerfull for me. I perfer a turkey baster once in awhile to blow a small 10% section of the bed around. Just like storming in the wild. It does not harm the bed at all, the denitrifing bacteria will come back very quickly and critters will be fine.
IME anyone who just sits on the sand bed and thinks it's never going to need maintance to rid it of a lot of the slowly accumulating ditritus hasnt had the sand bed in place long enough to see how they can leach nutrients back it not maintaned properly.
IME anyone who just sits on the sand bed and thinks it's never going to need maintance to rid it of a lot of the slowly accumulating ditritus hasnt had the sand bed in place long enough to see how they can leach nutrients back it not maintaned properly.
Ben":2p60yr4j said:
I totally agree with Ben.
One word of caution - if you sand has been sitting for years, be very careful when you manually stir it because it is prolly filled with lots of nasties that can kill your tank. I have been stirring mine from the get go with a power head, so I am not all that concerned about big build up of nasties. If I had a bed that was sitting undisturbed for a long time, I wouldn't stir it, I would use a gravel vacuum and export the nasties right away, and I would only do 10% or less of the sand per week.
Yes i agree with both of you Righty and Ben..I too do the same thing...My sandbed isnt that old a year and half but i hear nasty things about tanks crashing due to a bad sandbed overtime...i like to stir it up once in awhile..it clouds the tank alittle but that goes away...Peace of mind is worth that cloudy tank for a couple of hours
Well, I think it's fair to say that my lack of a long term sand bed may limit my ability to understand the issue. That said, I've found since I started that many people seem to have success and failure using many techniques. I think a lot gets done that probably doesn't need to be done. The problem for me is that there is no solid evidence on much of the stuff I'm curious about.
For example, how is anybody sure that the sandbed caused the problem when a crash occurred? Why would the sandbed suddenly expel bad stuff? What's the bad stuff?
I'm just trying to set up a tank with a steady state. If I never touch my sandbed, then what's the difference if bad stuff builds up in it? It's going to stay there until I take the tank apart, right? And if I have sand sifters, then they are going to be constantly liberating the bad stuff at a fairly even rate, so again, why do I need to worry about what accumulates but doesn't get liberated?
Anyway, just my opinion.
For example, how is anybody sure that the sandbed caused the problem when a crash occurred? Why would the sandbed suddenly expel bad stuff? What's the bad stuff?
I'm just trying to set up a tank with a steady state. If I never touch my sandbed, then what's the difference if bad stuff builds up in it? It's going to stay there until I take the tank apart, right? And if I have sand sifters, then they are going to be constantly liberating the bad stuff at a fairly even rate, so again, why do I need to worry about what accumulates but doesn't get liberated?
Anyway, just my opinion.
Well, I think it's fair to say that my lack of a long term sand bed may limit my ability to understand the issue. That said, I've found since I started that many people seem to have success and failure using many techniques. I think a lot gets done that probably doesn't need to be done. The problem for me is that there is no solid evidence on much of the stuff I'm curious about.
For example, how is anybody sure that the sandbed caused the problem when a crash occurred? Why would the sandbed suddenly expel bad stuff? What's the bad stuff?
I'm just trying to set up a tank with a steady state. If I never touch my sandbed, then what's the difference if bad stuff builds up in it? It's going to stay there until I take the tank apart, right? And if I have sand sifters, then they are going to be constantly liberating the bad stuff at a fairly even rate, so again, why do I need to worry about what accumulates but doesn't get liberated?
Anyway, just my opinion.
For example, how is anybody sure that the sandbed caused the problem when a crash occurred? Why would the sandbed suddenly expel bad stuff? What's the bad stuff?
I'm just trying to set up a tank with a steady state. If I never touch my sandbed, then what's the difference if bad stuff builds up in it? It's going to stay there until I take the tank apart, right? And if I have sand sifters, then they are going to be constantly liberating the bad stuff at a fairly even rate, so again, why do I need to worry about what accumulates but doesn't get liberated?
Anyway, just my opinion.
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