Water Changes

Hello,

if you have a SUMP, do the WC by it.

I only siphon or do anything else within the display if it extremely necessary. I don´t like to disturb fishs and corals with the wc. Do that by the SUMP. It´s much better.


Hug

 

I agree the water quality may be the same, but we all experience surface film from particulates that are lighter than water and float to the top, some of these particulates encourage the Nitrate and Phosphates we try to keep low.

I notice surface film if the overflow slots get build up and the overflow is not capturing the top most surface water. I prefer to get rid of this surface film and capture some of it during waterchanges if needed.

 

Oh, I know a Kdub in Flawda heauh... that you were her... lol.

Nice to meet you and welcome to 3reef!

That would be totally teedious for most of us with bigger, or who had bigger, tanks. You can't reach your arm down in deep tanks to get at the sand bed in most cases. If you are asking... you don't HAVE TO clean your sand bed. t will eventually become inhibited by detrius eating organisms in part of a balanced ecosystem.

My apologies on not specifying again.. I meant the turkey baster idea on an established sand bed... not for cleaning off rocks or if it was already a part of your weekly maintenance. I turkey baste dead zones of rock in my tank form time to time... like inside the cups of my old cap when it was huge.

 

Errrr....

Edit: that = thought

 

this is why recommend a very shallow sand bed less then a inch. that way you dont have to worry about all the turn over and stirring of your sand, and of what may or may not be in it. less problems

 

My fish and my snails turn my sand over. All I have is dead GHA sitting on my sand bed, but no detritus and gunk. I let nature keep my sand clean.

 

Nice to meet you too, Optimist. Glad to know I don't need to siphon the sand each time. It was becoming a pain. Can you recommend some snails or other inverts good for cleaning the sand?

 

There is a thread on here if you search for sand sifters in the search engine. I can't remember the name of mine. I have the nass ones and a conch (who really is sifting for what you want in your sand but does a good job busting the sand up). I have pretty much every snail in there and it was survival of the fittest. I will try to find the thread for you if no one replies and let you know the argumentitive sifters.

 

I siphon my entire tank every other waterchange (every 2-ish weeks) in a 125 with a 20 fuge and 40 sump. sand bed goes from 2 to 4 inches across tank. and turkey baster whenever the tank needs it (once a week?)
nitrates less than 5ppm for me

to each his/her own

 

I dump everything, water, sand, rocks and fish, every three days, just to be sure. I call it the 100% tank change.