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i can not take it anymore

R

RobNJ

I really messed up a year ago. I purchase this really cool fine grain sand for my tank. It looked so super cool in the tank at the store. Problem is in a sps tank with high flow it just blows everywhere and I can not take it anymore. I have been dealing with this for a year now and I still have sand floating in my water column. I am so frustrated I wanna pull the plug on the tank.

What can I do? I thought after some time the sand would get a good coat of bacteria and would not be so light and stop blowing. I was wrong. How could I realistically remove this sand. I have very good filtration so just going bare-bottom would be an option.

Could anyone give me some ideas on how to remove the sand? Tanks is 120 gallons 48x24 2 inch sand bed.
 
MikeNapoli

MikeNapoli

Rob,

I have the same issue in my 120. I also have a goby that likes to move the sand and siphon it through his gills which also causes a stir up. It's sucks. I'm ready to start gravel vac-ing the whole thing. I think i'll start with an inch every two weeks. My only issue that i'm worried about is putting new sand in and disturbing/stressing my SPS when adding it. I'm going to follow this thread for progress and other ideas.
 
R

RobNJ

I have a gravel Vacuum and it doesn't suck up sand. I mean it sucks up dietrus and other junk, but the sand itself gets sucked up a little and then falls back in place. Also what to do about all the sand beneath and behind my live rock. I almost think i should drain the tank and start over. I am so frustrated.
 
J

JasonR

RobNJ said:
I have a gravel Vacuum and it doesn't suck up sand. I mean it sucks up dietrus and other junk, but the sand itself gets sucked up a little and then falls back in place. Also what to do about all the sand beneath and behind my live rock. I almost think i should drain the tank and start over. I am so frustrated.
Click to expand...

Yea You need to just use the Hose.
I used a 3/4 inch hose to do some of mine
The rocks will settle when you suck out under them
You are not going to get 100% out without taking everthing apart but you can get alot of it out.
This is the Warning from Caribsea
Warning! Placing new substrates over the top of an established substrate bed can be damaging to aquatic life. Gently mix new material into the existing bed with fingers. For added safety, this process can be done in sections, over the course of a few days.

I am going to go with Special Grade Reef Sand from Caribsea for my 120
http://www.caribsea.com/pages/products/dry_aragonite.html

Jason
 
C

Carlo

Another tip is to leave what you presently have and add/mix in some course sand. Normally adding the courser sand in will stop much of the sand blowing around.

You can also try moving the powerheads down in the tank and blowing them upwards instead of having them at the top blowing towards the sand.

Using those two techniques I've had DSB with wicked flow and not had much problems.

Just a thought,
Carlo
 
MikeNapoli

MikeNapoli

Rob,

I don't think we need to get rid of 100% of the fine sand. I think if we can get rid of 75%-80% and put the thicker sand on top we shouldn't have a problem. I think that's what I'm going to do.
 
mynd

mynd

I feel your pain.. Not sure what size tank you have but I had the same problem in my nano, so what I did each week was siphon out as much as possible during my water changes. Since I was doing 3 gallon water changes on a 12 gallon nano you would think it would take just a couple weeks, but actually not unlike you the sand that was under the rock took about 6, 7 even 8 more water changes and much blowing with a turkey baster to finally alleviate me of any sand in my tank.


From This:
day26rebuild.whitelight.jpg


To This:
P1070002a.jpg


Now don't get me wrong I do like the sand in the tank and have considered many times adding it back, but it is just not worth it in the nano. Cleaning the bottom of the tank and loss of undesirable algae growth is worth not having sand at all. Besides it looks much better in person. I assure you. Nothing like making a point with a crappy camera. Just take your time and get 5 feet of 1/2 inch hose, mine actually might be 1/4 inch hosing. I connected it to a dowel and siphoned a little each week. You will eventually get rid of it all if that is your desire and you won't have to mess up the rock work at all.

Now if I could just clean that back wall! LOL.. Everything looks so nice when its new ;)

Good Luck!
 
T

tcollins

I feel your pain. I fought this and a non-stop algae problem for the longest time. Finally bit the bullet and one Saturday, cleaned it all out and went bare bottom. I love the look of nice clean sand, but I'm really enjoying not fighting it anymore. Barebottom is not without it's own maintenance though, you'll still need to siphon the detrius that accumulates, but if you direct to an area that's easy to access it isn't much of a chore.
 
MikeNapoli

MikeNapoli

OK ... so i took some sand out today during a water change. I sucked up one spot which was a huge mound that my goby likes to build because he lives underneath. I only touched this one area so this way i'm not disturbing too much sand at once.

My plan is to let the goby do all the work and keep building up that mound and i'll just keep sucking it out. I think it's a pretty good plan. He's over there now going nuts replacing all the sand.


It should take about 5-6 changes to get the job done.
 
R

RevClyburn

hello

if you have any sand you want to get rid off, please let me know, I can certainly use it. I understand you pain also, had a goby that dug up my entire tank. As much as I loved him it was also a nussiance. But I don't have any corals, especially SPS'S and they're endency to be so particular.

Thanks

Rev
 
MikeNapoli

MikeNapoli

Not sure how I'd save the sand for you. My sand is 2 $5 bags of playsand from homedepot... it's been in my tank for over 6 months but I'm not sure where I would keep it over the 5 weeks of water changes it's going to take for me to get it all out. If I leave it in a bucket it's sure to become dead sand and if that's the case you might as well buy it from home depot... which I don't recomend because after I bought it I heard they have high silica levels which isn't good for the tank. Let me know what you'd like me to do though and if it's ok with you that it sits in a bucket and still want it then it's yours for free.
 
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