Sand bed maintenance in a nano?

[mrhasan]

Originally Posted by Reef Pilot

Don't we all want crystal clear water, and clean rocks and sand? That's what getting all the nutrients out of your tank is all about. And with zero nitrates and phosphates.

At this time, I no longer vacuum my sand. That's because it is now divided up between 2 tanks, and is not very deep anywhere. Some parts of the bottom are actually bare, because of the water currents. And the gobies do a good job to ensure detritus doesn't build up anywhere.

True that!

My sand bed is also shallow. I am a big anti-DSB (let's not start anything on that ). I let bristles take care of ugly things

[Reef Pilot]

Originally Posted by mrhasan

I let bristles take care of ugly things

Yeah, and you think they don't crap?...

[Koleswrath]

Originally Posted by mrhasan

My last bad experience was with nitrate. Sand bed surface remains clean, I just don't wanna peek-a-boo with whats inside, bristle worms are there to keep things in check.

I guess it just comes down to how pristine you want your DT to be. I just like my glass (both inside and outside; I hate when people put finger prints on the glasses), my rocks and sand bed which is visible to the eye to be clean. And crystal clear water. Atleats I know, if I were to care about what's inside those sand bed, I would be thinking hard about the dead spots between and behind the rocks.

Dead spots behind the rocks are just as bad as the sandbed if the detritus is settling there and not being removed. But think about this, if you're afraid to take a peek into your sandbed because of settling detritus/excess nutrients what's preventing it from eventually filling up with this stuff and releasing it into your water at some point? Bristleworms create waste too.....

[mrhasan]

Originally Posted by Reef Pilot

Yeah, and you think they don't crap?...

Crap = coral food + skimmer's job Hmmm now u r making me wonder what bristle worm's poop looks like...I would imagine poops with bristles Maybe that's how they distinguish between theirs and others. Ok enough with hijacking OP's thread, bad me bad me! I got a Kien-ish thread to take care of now

[Scuba Diver Gal]

We have a 29 g biocube too and your question was a timely one for us. My son is a beginner...so am I...

Do we have to vacuum off his rocks? We had a turkey baster in there today and a ton of debris went into the air when it blew on the rocks. Then do we strain that out? So much to learn...sigh...Also, our nassarius snails seem to stir the sand up a lot. That's probably enough?

[Scuba Diver Gal]

Sorry, didn't mean "air" meant water. Anyway the debris was floating around.

[Koleswrath]

Originally Posted by Scuba Diver Gal

We have a 29 g biocube too and your question was a timely one for us. My son is a beginner...so am I...

Do we have to vacuum off his rocks? We had a turkey baster in there today and a ton of debris went into the air when it blew on the rocks. Then do we strain that out? So much to learn...sigh...Also, our nassarius snails seem to stir the sand up a lot. That's probably enough?

You can vacuum, baste or use a powerhead to blow off your rocks. The bacteria in the rocks are always producing detritus which needs to be swept in to the water column for removal by either your skimmer or mechanical filtration means. Siphon the sand bed with your next water change to see what you can pull out of there. That will tell you if it's being stirred up enough.

Greg