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Cleaning Reef Tank - Sand
Last updated on November 17th, 2023
Reef Tank Sand Bed
A dirty sand bed in the reef tank can cause more problems than just looking ugly. If the reef tank sand bed is maintained with proper cleaning, it can be a great asset for beneficial bacteria to remove nitrates and phosphates. If left un-maintained however, it can be one of the biggest threats to the reef tank. A dirty sand bed can cause high nitrate and phosphate and provide a place where ammonia can form. This makes cleaning reef tank sand one of the most important regular maintenance techniques for keeping a healthy, happy aquarium.
Sand bed maintenance is one of the most important, and most overlooked pieces of cleaning reef tanks. When fish food is not eaten in the water column, it falls to the sand bed. Fish poop and algae also falls to the sand to break down in to nitrates and phosphates. When the water around the sand moves, the waste works its way in to the sand and slowly decays. This can turn in to nitrates and phosphates in the reef tank. If the waste is trapped in the sand, it can lead to ammonia releasing when the sand bed is disturbed. It is best to do regular sand bed cleaning from the start.
If you haven't maintained your sand bed from the start, it's not too late. You will need to be very careful however. Disturbing a deep or old sand bed can lead to all of this ammonia and gas release to happen at once and crash the reef tank. I cannot stress enough, you MUST be careful cleaning an old or deep sand bed when cleaning reef tank sand.
Cleaning a Deep Sand Bed / Old Sand Bed
If you have a deep sand bed, or you're water change routine donesn't include cleaning reef tank sand, then you may have to start with the slow and steady path. When cleaning these possibly concerning sand beds, you will need to be careful not to disturb too much at a time. Unfortunatly, you are almost guaranteed to release some ammonia and other nutrients in to the tank. So the key is to go slow.
Before you start cleaning an old or deep sand bed, I reccomend having a product like AmmoLock on hand. This way, you can prevent small ammonia spikes to kill off life in your reef tank.
Using an aquarium sand siphon, slowly clean the sand in small sections. Pick a side of the tank and clean 25% of the sand each week during your weekly water change. If the sand is really bad, maybe do a bit less. After the whole sand bed is clean, start again and do 33% - 50% of the sand that week. Slowly cleaning more of the reef tank sand until the sand is free of all of the waste and debris that causes ammonia, nitrates, and phosphates!
Cleaning a Normal Sand Bed / New Sand Bed
A normal sand bed is anything less than 2" in depth. There are a few ways to clean a normal sand bed. If your sand bed is very dirty, or hasn't been cleaned in a long time, it is best to treat your sand as if it were a deep sand bed. Being careful to remove debris and detritus slowly and in sections. This will help reduce the amount of ammonia and gases released when cleaning reef tank sand.
So how do you clean reef tank sand? There are a few ways to clean the sand in a reef tank. Let's dive in to a few of the options available.
Stirring the Sand
If you have a clean or new sand bed, one way to keep it that way is to regularly stir the sand bed with a pair of tongs or blowing water on it with a turkey baster. This helps let the debris rise to the top of the sand or even re-enter the water column. When paired with Micro-Bubble scrubbing, and siphoning the sand bed, you are able to remove nearly all of the bad waste from the tank!
Siphoning the Sand Bed
Siphoning the sand bed is one of the easiest ways to ensure success in the reef tank. Depending on the amount of sand you need to clean, there are two common methods of cleaning reef tank sand with siphoning.
Siphoning in to a Filter Sock
If you have a lot of sand to clean, it may be ideal to siphon in to a filter sock. All you need to do is place the end of the siphon hose in to a filter sock in your sump. Then as you clean the reef sand, the water returns to the tank, but the debris and waste is caught in the filter sock and removed easily.
Author's Notes: After reading about siphoning debris from the reef tank sand bed in to a filter sock, and puting it back in to the tank, I decided to give it a try! I used a 100 micron filter sock and drained the water in to a large garbadge bin. I then pumped the water back in to the sump through my ROX 0.8 Carbon in a reactor. I also turned on bubble scrubbing during this to help remove debris that made it in to the water column.
What are some possible concerns with siphoning reef tank sand to a filter sock? I'm glad you (or I?) asked. The real concerns come in with the quality of the water going back in to the tank. If any dissolved nitrates or ammonia is released and siphoned up, you are now adding it right back in to your tank! The only reason I even considered it is because the sand bed in my tank is so thin (about 1 half inch to an inch) and so new (about 2 weeks in the tank) as well as the fact that I clean it weekly. All of this combined makes me confident that there is little in terms of these concerns. If you are siphoning an old sand bed for the first time in months or even years, DO NOT put the water back in the tank. If you do, you are simply asking for trouble.
Siphon Sand during Water Changes
A very common and effective way of siphoning a reef sand bed is to clean reef tank sand during your regular water change. This let's you double down on finishing your water change and removing waste at the same time! This is very simple, but you'll want to be sure that this provides enough time to clean your sand bed.
Sand Sifting Cleanup Crew
Another way to clean a sand bed is to allow sand sifting fish and invertebrates to do the work for you. Though this will not clean up everything, sand sifting creatures are a great way to handle any waste you may have missed. Sand Sifting Gobies, Sand Sifting Starfish, hermit crabs, Cerith snails and Nassarius snails are all good options to help pull the debris and waste you missed from the sand bed.
How Would I Recommend Cleaning Reef Tank Sand
In short, I think it is important to do a little bit of everything. Occasionally stiring the sand, and siphoning the sand whenever you do a water change at a minimum. This lets the detritus and waste come out of the sand, and the siphoning allows you to remove waste from the reef tank sand. Another factor that all of the cleanest reef tank sand seems to have in common, is the use of a sand sifting goby. Though I don't currently have one, I plan to add one to my reef tank soon.
Conclusion
We have gone over a number of ways to clean reef tank sand. Keeping the sand pristine and clean, as well as having better nitrate and phosphate levels. I hope this article has helped you. If it has, please share it with your friends and on social media with the buttons at the top of this page!
References
About the Author
John Krenzer
John is a Software Engineer with a passion for saltwater aquariums, as well as the founder and president of Reef Stable. He started in the aquarium hobby as a child with a 20 gallon freshwater aquarium. His interest in aquarium life grew and in 2008, John set up his first saltwater aquarium.
Today, John maintains an over 300 gallon reef tank system, consisting of a 120g reef and a 210g reef. These large tanks are contained within the same system, sharing a sump as a means to reduce total maintenance and increase total water volume.
John writes articles for the blog as a means to learn about more reef aquarium topics. These articles act as a reference for the readers as well as himself. John updates these articles frequently to provide additional information or make corrections as new information becomes available.
If you would like to request an article, tank tour article, or to collaborate, let me know via the Contact Me Page!
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