Who's into the practice of replacing sand periodically?

[DK]

First of all, over time I have to continually add some sand to the beds. That said, every 8 months or so, I will siphon out a small area and replace with new sand. I am talking about the equivalent of a soup container. Siphoning allows little in the way of "nasties" getting in the water column so there is zero effect on the tank inhabitents.

 

[DK]

I'm sorry, I neglected to mention that I have kept sand beds since 1993

 

[Anonymous]

I don't really remove sand on purpose. At the same time, I don't follow Dr. Shimek's recommendations of place it in the tank and never touch it again.

I have a spork from a fast food restaurant rubberbanded to 1/2" aquarium tubing. When I do a water change, I start the siphon and then stir the sand. The siphon sucks up any nasties that are in the sand but leaves the worms and the majority of the sand. Obviously doing this weekly slowly over the course of time reduced the sand level.

BTW....I'm firmly of the belief that if you left your sandbed untouched for a couple of years and then tried this technique, you will release phosphates and actually cause a cyano bloom. However, it works very well for a sandbed that this is done to regularly.