Who's into the practice of replacing sand periodically?

[Len]

It seems to be a more common practice these days: replacing old sand with new sand on a periodic basis. Anyone here practicing this? I've seen European tanks add and more entire sand beds in a single swap (with the immaculate sandbeds often seen in Japanese tanks, I bet some Japanese hobbyists do this too); the idea of such massive changes is kind of scary to me

 

[Anonymous]

I dont know about massive changes, I know some "locals" (oregonreef) do siphon their sand out during cleaning and replace it as necessary

 

[Unarce]

I plan on doing this on an annual or bi-annual basis with the next tank, but may use the live Caribsea or Aragalive stuff just to be safe.

 

[Anonymous]

I am doing this. I just have not had to replace any yet. I also may also let some large bare spots form as well; just keep sand in the center for clams, etc.

 

[melas]

my sand is only decorative. . . about an inch at the deepest point. when i do water changes i just siphon off the detritus i see. My sand never has any cyano, diatoms, or algae growing on it. Its white like sugar all the time. I have a HUGE diamond goby as well as a pair of engineer gobies and sand sifting stars in my 125 gallon. They do a great job of keeping things neat. I use sinking pellets to supplement the sand-sifters' diet since the sand is rather sterile.

 

[Anonymous]

Sound like to much work to me.

 

[Rob Top]

When my 240 was up, I did this in small amounts very regularly. I was able to get SD at a local HD for $3 or 4 a bag, SOoo I had a ton of it. As I did water changes I would siphon out about a square foot of sand each time, this was monthly. The sand bed was about 3" deep and I only took the top inch or so. I poured the sand back very slowly through a large pc of pvc to prevent any mess. I don't plan to do this when the 240 goes back up. It was too much of a PITA and I saw no real benefit over the 2 yrs I did it

 

[Anonymous]

This this the first I have heard about this but my main concern is smothering life by putting in too much at once.

 

[Anonymous]

I would like to have a tank with a couple of small wells in the bottom I could fill with LS and have the majority of the tank BB.

 

[Anonymous]

That would be called a refugium (the well is external and connected via tubing).

 

[Anonymous]

I would like it in the tank for fish like Watchmans and so the little critters can move around without passing thru a pump. I don't like them hanging on the tank and having another little tank to deal with. A few wells of a DSB - vac them out when needed.

 

[Anonymous]

I would like to have a tank with a couple of small wells in the bottom I could fill with LS and have the majority of the tank BB.

Some people do this with glass bowls to give their wrasses a place to sleep in an otherwise bb tank.

 

[Anonymous]

It seems to be a more common practice these days: replacing old sand with new sand on a periodic basis. Anyone here practicing this? I've seen European tanks add and more entire sand beds in a single swap (with the immaculate sandbeds often seen in Japanese tanks, I bet some Japanese hobbyists do this too); the idea of such massive changes is kind of scary to me

As long as the sand has the necessary bacteria in it you can change the whole thing in one shot with no problem. You would want to strain the old sand though to save the worms, stars and other critters that inhabit it.

Regards,
David Mohr

 

[Anonymous]

I've had my sand bed up for about 4 years now, and in the past year or so I have toyed with the idea of replacing the sand. However, I now have a goby/pistol shrimp combo in the tank, and I gotta tell ya...they are all over the place. The pistol digs tunnels that reach at least half the tank. So I'm not sure what I am going to do. :?:

 

[shalegac]

I have taken half of my sand out not to long ago and cleaned it with some fresh salt water. then put it back in with the old. The sand bed almost looks new again. Probably alot easier since I have a Nano. Some people have trouble with my tank looking to new and clean though. :roll:

 

[Oceans Ferevh]

I vacuum out some of the sand and clean it when I do water changes. Maybe if someone wanted to do a large sand bed change they could supplement a little bottled bacteria to compensate until it repopulates the sand. or is that bottled stuff cr@p :?:

 

[LA-Lawman]

bottled stuff is crap...

I have some sifters, some sand stars, a few cucumbers, 100 or so hermits... a cleaner shrimp.... my sand looks really good. I still have tons of pods and such in the tank. a night it looks like the rocks and sand move.... so i know my scooter blenny is good to go...

when y sand starts to look thin. I add a bag or so of the live stuff. seems to do ok with me.

 

[Len]

David, the idea of shifting through 200+ lbs of used sand isn't very enticing I'll probably do what most people here do and swap out a portion at a time.

 

[Anonymous]

Removing the bed periodically more naturally matches what happens in nature. Here's a post that Dana Riddle made last night regarding a storm they just had.

Aloha,

I tend to think that turning off the lights will simulate a cloudy situation more than a storm. Probably no harm done.

We can't reasonably simulate a storm (this coming from someone living 150 feet away from a Hawaiian coral reef). Winter is the time for storms on this side of the island. I just recovered the pieces of my data logger instrument housing from an area sheltered from winter swells. This housing weighed almost 100 pounds before it (and its concrete anchor - epoxied to rock 4 feet above the tide line) was ripped up and deposited almost 10 feet above and far away from its original position. Rocks weighing 100's of pounds were also swept away. This lagoon had sand in it before the storm - but no more. But the corals made it through just fine (expect for those washtub sized colonies that were ripped off the bottom). Just wonder how many powerheads it would take to do that?

Dana

Here's what Dr. Ron stated on the subject in 2003.

The absolute position of the sediments will often vary from season to season, particularly in intertidal and shallow subtidal areas. Tourists who always visit a given resort at a particular time of year are often quite amazed when they return to the resort six months out of sync with their usual pattern and find the sandy beach they expect to see has vanished, leaving a hard coral pavement instead. Movement of sediments is less in deeper waters but it still occurs. In fact, one major characteristic of natural sand beds is their mobility.

http://www.reefkeeping.com/issues/2003- ... /index.php

The sand in the ocean does not stay in the same place for year upon year upon year collecting detritus like they do in our tanks. The detritus eventually ends up in the abyssal plains. That's why I've always disputed the concept that you can put sand in a tank and magically make matter disappear.

 

[Oceans Ferevh]

bottled stuff is crap...

I stand corrected.


Makes sense that storms would completely rearrange things from time to time. Maybe swapping sand will become common routine as more is found out about storm affects on reef life.