syphon advice for live sand bed

[messiah023]

polly,

If you are worried about the sandbed, might I suggest the following:
1.) Sand sifting starfish.
2.) Sand sifting goby.

These (2) guys will help keep the top layers of the sandbed clean and free of debris. They do a good job. Make sure your liverock is secure, as a sand sifting goby will scoop up all the sand and move your entire sandbed around. Sometimes, loose rockwork will shift, possibly trapping livestock.

Good luck.

[fatman]

Sand sifting Gobies will eat the other critters you want to keep a population of in your sand bed. The small critters that live within a healthy mature sand bed will do a more than adequate job of keep yor sand bed functioning properly. A innocultion with some GARF grunge will give you a good start on all the sand sifting critters you need if you did not start off with a good live sand innoculant, it will include different worms, little brittle stars and nassirus snails that live normally in deep sand beds. A sand sifting gobie can actually be a detriment to a functioning deep sand bed.

[Bifferwine]

There are different maintenance routines for gravel and for sand. Your friend is siphoning and mixing up their substrate because they have gravel. Gravel is an awful substrate to use, and the large particles trap food and detritus and the gravel becomes a nitrate factory. That's why it's a good idea to clean the gravel by hand.

Sand is different. The particles are small enough that it doesn't trap nearly as much crap as gravel or crushed coral. Therefore, you do not need to, and should not disturb a sand bed. Disturbing a sand bed will kill off the (good) anaerobic bacteria that are living at the bottom. You can keep the upper layers of the sand bed clean by adding a dozen or so nassarius snails. Like Fatman, I too would definitely avoid sand sifting stars.

In short, I'd definitely stop trying to clean your sand bed. You got some bad advice from someone who has a tank with gravel, not sand and therefore needs a different maintenance routine for their tank.

[2008pollyanna]

What is Garf Grunge and where do I find it?
Ok, now were talking...I dont want to siphon my deep bed of Live sand. So, when I do tank changes for water...how do you all do that. Do you even use a syphoning hose? Or do you just dip out 10-20% of the water per week and replace with same temp, salinaty, and ph water? Is it that simple?
How often do you clean your sump? How should I be doing that?
I inherited a year old well established tank, but am learning as I go. My idea and the actual ways of doing things are based on another gals gravel based salt water reef. We are learning as we go.

[NewbReefer]

thats pretty much it, but it would also be a good habit to take a turkey baster and gently blow off your live rock the take your syphoning hose (you could get a larger one if it takes forever to take the water out) and syphon out the desired amount of water taking up as much of the debris from the rocks that you can. For adding the new saltwater you want it to be the same salinity and temperature as your tanks water. it's a good idea the day before your water change to get the saltwater ready so that the salt is all mixed in. to make that easier you could go get a cheap little heater and powerhead add the salt while mixing it tell you are close to the correct salinity, put your heater and powerhead in your bucket or whatever your using to hold the water and plug em in. by the time you do your water change the next day your salt will be mixed in good and it will be close enough to the right temp.

[Piggy]

Ditto. I also suction off my rock if it has bad stuff on it.

[yote]

When doing my water changes,I just use my siphon to clean off the rock.I dont the sand.Been doing it that for over a year now.

[reeffreak]

Originally Posted by fatman

Sand sifting Gobies will eat the other critters you want to keep a population of in your sand bed. The small critters that live within a healthy mature sand bed will do a more than adequate job of keep yor sand bed functioning properly. A innocultion with some GARF grunge will give you a good start on all the sand sifting critters you need if you did not start off with a good live sand innoculant, it will include different worms, little brittle stars and nassirus snails that live normally in deep sand beds. A sand sifting gobie can actually be a detriment to a functioning deep sand bed.

Well said!(See we don't always disagree)
Also goes for sand sifting seastars as well.

[daugherty]

here is the link to garf
http://www.garf.org/index.html

[Bifferwine]

Instead of using a siphon, I find that using a powerhead or small pump hooked up to some vinyl tubing works much better for doing water changes. I put the pump in my tank, the other end of the vinyl tubing in my sink, and plug the pump in. It moves water from the tank to the sink, then when it's time to put in new water, I move the pump into the new water jug and the vinyl tubing into the tank, and it moves the water over into the tank. Much easier than using one of those siphon thingies.

It really is as simple as removing 10 to 20% of the water (somehow) and replacing it with new water at the correct salinity, temperature and pH.