25g Mid-Week Detritus Export Video

[MarkoD]

I have over 200 hermit crabs. Sand and rocks are nice and clean looking.

[Beverly]

To Marko and anyone else who'd like to do an experiment :

Could you please take a cup or so of sand from your sandbed (or sump), preferably near or under your rock, put it in a jar with some tankwater and shake it? Post photos of what the jar and your sandbed looks like during this process. I'm guessing the jar water will turn a shade of brown, but that's only a guess.

Looking forward to seeing a whole whack of photos!

[MarkoD]

Originally Posted by Beverly

To Marko and anyone else who'd like to do an experiment :

Could you please take a cup or so of sand from your sandbed (or sump), preferably near or under your rock, put it in a jar with some tankwater and shake it? Post photos of what the jar and your sandbed looks like during this process. I'm guessing the jar water will turn a shade of brown, but that's only a guess.

Looking forward to seeing a whole whack of photos!

I only have an inch of sand bed. But why does it even matter? There's so many successful reef tanks with sand.

My only concern is that it looks clean

[RuGlu6]

Originally Posted by MarkoD

I only have an inch of sand bed. But why does it even matter? There's so many successful reef tanks with sand.

My only concern is that it looks clean

You are correct it only looks clean.
I always end up replacing or getting rid of the sand because it gets full of detritus. No meter how much i like the sand if i don't get rid of it in a year or so it always get foul. I never put more then an inch also, And i have about 100x+ water flow in my display tank without counting a return pump flow.

[Reef Pilot]

Originally Posted by RuGlu6

You are correct it only looks clean.
I always end up replacing or getting rid of the sand because it gets full of detritus. No meter how much i like the sand if i don't get rid of it in a year or so it always get foul. I never put more then an inch also, And i have about 100x+ water flow in my display tank without counting a return pump flow.

I've been following this discussion, as I am in the process of redoing my upstairs display tank, and need to decide whether to go BB or a thin layer of sand.

Currently, I have about 3 inches coarse sand, and no question it collects a lot of detritus. I vacuum the sand bed regularly, but much of it is inaccessible under the rock. I have high nitrates and phosphates (although lowered recently with bio pellets), and I think this is the main reason.

However, I do like the look of the sand, so at the moment am leaning towards having a thin layer, just enough to cover the bottom, and see how that works.

Another consideration, might be that the sand contributes to the nitrogen cycle, just like the live rock, and eliminating that may reduce the capacity of my tank to manage the bio load with fish and feeding.

[Beverly]

When I upgraded from the 10g to the 25g before Christmas 2011, it was on my mind to put a thin layer (under 1") of sandbed at a later date. However, with all the detritus I'm pulling out weekly (with no fish to feed and no coral feeding), I've decided to keep the 25g BB. With the BB, I can see that a lot of detritus accumulates under the rock. Turkey basting gets that crud out from under there where it can be either siphoned out or blasted into the water column for the foams in my HOB to catch and to later be cleaned.

[Reef Pilot]

Originally Posted by Beverly

Turkey basting gets that crud out from under there where it can be either siphoned out or blasted into the water column for the foams in my HOB to catch and to later be cleaned.

Yes, I looked at your video. But wouldn't a sand bed, with its beneficial bacteria, consume some of that detritus through the nitrogen cycle and go out as skimmate (after the the bio pellets do their job)?

I can see why a deeper sand bed can accumulate N03 and P04, but a thinner one, with good water flow, should help to consume detritus instead. Or is that just wishful thinking on my part?