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Should I be replacing sand?

2K views 14 replies 7 participants last post by  partobe 
#1 ·
Hi Everyone!
As some of you know I had gotten lazy and hadnt been syphoning my sand bed like I should and by doing so developed algae problems. Well over the past cpl of weeks Ive been doing smaller(15 gallon) water changes on my 150 instead of my 35 gallon water changes. Ive been doing my water changes every week instead of every 3 weeks. Starting next week I will change to my new schedule of 15 gallon every other week.
Things def are starting to look better in my tank I also got a clean up crew and I'm picking up a cucumber an fri. My question is. Should I be replacing the sand bed? My sand bed is about 2-3 inches deep and since Ive gotten back to syphoning Ive taken out at least a cup or two of sand.
Thanks for any input.
Patrick
 
#2 ·
Personally I think until you find a time when an increased husbandry schedule fails to bring no3 or po4 down and algae increases, your fine. We all have times where we slide on maintenance and things happen for the worse. not always do we have to take drastic measures to fix them;) But sometimes we do:lol:
 
#4 ·
Thanks Hop and George
I really didnt consider this cpl of water changes a drastic measure. I just wanted to get on top of the situation before it got out of controll. The clean up crew I needed I only had 3 snail and a cpl of crabs for my 150 and even I know I needed more. So what do you think about the sand bed? Should I be adding new?
 
#7 ·
Thanks Hop and Geoff
I guess I didnt ask the question correctly what I meant to ask is do I need to replace the sand that i"m syphoning out each week? Or wait for a few months then replace what has been syphoned out? Unless I'm doing the syphoning incorrectly? Each time I syphon I take about a half to a cup of sand out.
 
#13 ·
I would opt for one large sand change once a year or however long it takes for most of the sand to be gone. That's what I did, then I went with oolithic :mad: and had fun with a sandstorm for
a few days. =[
Thanks harlequin
Like I just said to Aquawolf I worry about my sandsifters? What is oolithic? I'm sure its some kind of sand. I'm sure I would have the same problem since I have alot of flow in my tank.
 
#14 ·
the cucumber would not starve. they find stuff to eat all over the top of the and bed. the extra food bits. the goby could run into problems unless it does not mind eating prepared foods.

in this case i would add little bits of sand every now and then to keep the levels up without causing to much trauma for the critters in the sand, though if you are properly siphoning the sand bed, then you will probably be decimating the sand infauna anyway making food finding difficult for the goby.

G~
 
#15 ·
thanks Geoff
I have been doing a different side each week not to deplete the gobies food. I feel Ive done enough weekly water changes water. So I'm going to start my biweekly water changes. I already see a big difference in my tank. The sand is much whiter the black cotton ball things are almost gone the back wall is completely clear of algae and my rocks are showing much more colors than they had. I know alot of that is due to the clean up crew but I feel thanks to you and all the other folks here my tank is back on the right track.
I will prob pick up a small bag of sand as well tomorrow.
Thanks for all the help.
 
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