So, today I learned a few things. For the first time I truely understand why many people don't like sand beds. I've just spent about 4+ hours cleaning mine and it was no fun at all.
Over the last couple of months, I have been constantly fighting with what I would describe as a massive bacterial bloom in my tank. At times it takes the form of long stringy things that hang off the rocks. It comes and goes in the water column but seems to have persisted as a film on the rocks and in the sand. I knew it was in the sand bed, but I figured it would break down over time and perhaps it would have, but after what I just cleaned out it might have taken years?!
I started noticing areas in the sand bed that looked like a thick crust that had shifted and broken apart. Kind of like snow when a crust forms on top and then water melts the bottom and it eventually cracks. I figured it was only in a few places and still hoped it would start breaking up on its own. Oh to be so naive.
Last night I decided to siphon out a section that was particularly bad and in the process discovered that the entire sand bed was encrusted about ¼” thick – held together by a bacterial sludge.
Many buckets and a few spills later I had siphoned off the top layer of the entire sand bed. Rinsed thoroughly in tap water, then ro/di, then saltwater and back in the tank. Mixed the clean sand with the old sand and tried to stir up the areas where I wasn’t able to siphon. The tank went white with floating bacteria that I hadn’t been able to get at. Wow.
The other thing I learned, or rather concluded is that it’s probably not a good idea to run biopellets right from the get go. It just complicates things too much and it takes a long time for the bacteria to find their balance. There’s likely some competition between the biopellet bacteria and the live rock bacteria and that isn’t really a good thing. Also because there isn’t much to skim out of the tank, the skimmer is having a hard time processing all of the bacteria and skimming super wet. I keep thinking that I’m winning the battle and then realize that I’m not even close.
- Brad
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