When should I replace my sand bed?

[menelaus22]

I have a 20g nano that has a shallow sand bed. The tank has been set up since february and so far has been doing great. I experienced tremendous growth but now things are starting to go downhill. There's a lot of areas that I cannot siphon easily and i've noticed a lot of silt build up. Now there's algae beginning to grow in small spots. A little patch of hairy red macro that hitch hiked its way in on some LR has really begun to sprout. I haven't let down on my bi weekly 25% water changes, so the only thing I can imagine that's causing this is the buildup of sediments and detritus.

Since it's been about a year, should I swap the sand out?
Will it cause my tank to go through a cycle if I throw new sand in?
Should I just clean my existing sand in a bucket?

thanks as always

[ChrisPrusha]

I'm not sure I would do anything but get a turkey baster and blow the detritus around every so often.

Tank looks wonderful!!

[SaltBlock]

I ran a 30 with a shallow sandbed for about a year. I noticed much better water quality when I frequently (every other month) removed, cleaned, and replaced small sections (25%) of the sandbed. The key still, is getting to all of the sand. Its usually the hardest to reach sand that seems to get the most detritus buildup.

I didn't run this type of system very long - went to a bare-bottom.

Andrew

[menelaus22]

Hmmmmm... I think I might have to make the switch to a bare bottom to see how it all goes. Man, what a project that's going to be.

[SaltBlock]

Don't let me talk you into it...IMO BB has its ups and downs.

In a perfect world I would at home 52 weeks a year and would do a 15% water change eveyone of them. Unfortunately, 2 week vacations and the nice neighbor guy feeding the tank can end in severe (albiet temporary) spikes in nitrates and phosphates...and of course algae.

On the other side, when I do keep up on the maintenace all water parameters are good and all the inhabitants seem to do well.

Overall, I think both require frequent husbandry to work well.

Andrew

BTW...I'm going to a partial sandbed (starboard bottom with sand in the front only) when I setup my 50. I just like the looks of sand

[SaltBlock]

Oh yeah...nice lookin tank

How many differnt types of zoas do you have in there?

Andrew

[menelaus22]

I bought a 10 pack of zoa frags from www.yourreef.com and they just went nuts in the tank. I never really even had a chance to stock it with anything else because the zoanthids grew so darn quick. Heck of a problem to be complaining about I guess.

[gwen_o_lyn]

That is a beautiful tank!!

[Casey]

looks great just do water changes and slowly siphon the sand out.

[tims]

i would not touch a thing until you read your PM

[Casey]

No fair Tim sending private hints.

[tims]

Whhhhhaaaattttttttt i was just giving him a suggestion

[Casey]

Originally Posted by tims

Whhhhhaaaattttttttt i was just giving him a suggestion

[VWD]

Very nice looking Tank, I have sand beds and don't do anything, They are deep on shallow I would siphon the bed during water changes.