Scheduling sandbed vacuuming

Any of you that have been following the discussion on Controlled Plenum Wasting may have noticed some inferences in the thread about vacuuming the sand beds.

I was curious if there are opinions on scheduling partial sandbed vacuuming, that is, picking a section of the sandbed and doing a light vacuuming and cleanup on a schedule and then moving to the next section at the next appointed time.

What does anybody feel about the timing...1/6[sup]th[/sup] of the tank every 2 months...1/4[sup]th[/sup] of the tank every 3 months, etc.?? Or are there opponents to such a concept?

I am not talking about really digging up the bed just a cursory cleaning and light vacuuming to remove rotting materials, if possible.

 

How deep is your SB?

 

Drew, I'll talk to my friend and find out how he vacuums his dsb.

phil

 

Thanks, Phil.

Reefman, the sandbed will be between 3 and 4 inches.

 

I've always supported it.
I don't do it that often or have a schedule for it, but just an occasional hit with the siphon when doing water changes.

I also check to see the sand isn't caking by running a tube or chopstick through the sand.

 

Thanks Matt, I've heard of the chopstick thing. It will be very important for me to make sure no caking is impeding the plenum so I appreciate the input!!

 

I think you should occasionally do just a little vacuuming of maybe the top inch of the bed. The do what Matt said with the chopsticks.

 

I had quite a discussion over lunch with my friend today on how he vacuums his dsb.

Let me say this first of all, his tank is a 200g/757l fowlr. He has a full grown orange lipped clown trigger and a 10'/25cm polka-dot grouper (can you see a pattern here? ;D ) along with a few other fish that I can't remember. Anyway, they are all large and messy animals as you can see. He uses a 55g/208l tank as a refugium with various types of macroalgea growing in it. His lighting is pc, but I didn't ask how many watts. An Aqua C 400 is the skimmer. And a "ton" (he dosn't know how much, just a "ton&quot of l/r. With four mj's 1200 for extra circulation. His pump is a AmpMaster 3000. He also uses a home made coiled denitrator. He also checks parameters before water change to make certain everything ok.

As far as vacuuming, he uses what he calls a random vacuum area. He picks out where he wants to vacuum (he didn't mention how big) and vacuum's it by going all the way to the bottom of the tank once or twice. After that he makes random vacuuming depths in that given area. Said if he had to guess, he takes out a gallon/liter or two then goes on to do a "light" vacuuming of the rest of the tank. All and all he says he takes out 25g/94l for the complete water change. He does this twice a month.

He also recommends that you start doing this when your tank is new but after it has cycled. If your tank has been running for a while and you try this, you could hit a sulphuric zone and wipe out your live stock. He also said that you could run into an ammonia pocket and do the same-thing. I haven't heard that one but I guess it could be true. What do y'all think, is it true are not?

He thinks that randomness is best but you could section it out if you wish. But if you start with one end, than the next time should be at the other end. The key is to move the vacuuming around and vary the depth of the vacuuming and start doing this after the tank is cycled and you should be fine. ;D

HTH



phil

 

Ok, I just gotta ask this:

10 foot, how long is this 200g, I mean, typically 200g tanks are 8' long

Does your friend run a DSB (LS doesn't equal a DSB), and if so, how deep?

Nope, not at all.

 

My bad! The grouper is 8 inches long. And I can't believe I forgot to ask him how deep his bed is. I'll do that first thing in the morning. By the way, it's a standard 8' long tank. Sorry. And thank you for clarifying the ammonia thing up for me.


phil