Thoughts on vacuuming sand?

[Hilary]

I've been battling cyno in the 90 gallon all summer, and have read that a couple of people have had some success from vacuuming it off the sand (rather than just trying to pick it off with tongs like I've been doing). Thoughts on the damage I'd be doing to an established sand bed if I vacuumed?

 

I know my water's out of whack (phosphates) and have been doing more frequent changes to help on that front, and lights are all about 9 months old.

[Vadim]

The first time i did that, it killed one of my fish. Because the junk in the sand came up. Second time no fishies around, fish could go in the bucket, then went to town on the sand. I definitely recommend taking the fish out if you're able too. Yes the moving around of rocks is also required. But at the end it's much cleaner.

[iangibby]

I used maracyn it cleared it out with no trouble and it hasnt returned. Petsmart and prestine carries it.

Edited September 21, 2010 by iangibby

[gwweber]

i tried the vac, and cleaned out the sand a bit, then discovered the real issue. I had a growth of green algae on the back of my tank. I bought a load of snails and threw them in my tank. The glass got very clean but i then had issues with the cyano because of the freed up nutrients that the algae no longer ate. I have been picking snails out and chucking them in my sons tank. now he is upset at me cause his tank is clean and he is getting cyano. My tank however is much better. I also cut my light back and only run my main light 7 hours a day and my actinics around 5 hours, three hours before the halides come on and 2 hours after they go off.

 

The problem is the vacume does not really pick it up well, it tends to travel up the vacume and clog it up.

 

I did change to halides from t5 also but doubt that that helped much except to drive my water evaporation and power bill up.

 

I still have a little bit, but it is down form the very bad outbreak i had, with a massive growth every night.

 

I am changing my sump and am going to install a few tank dividers in it for a place for the green algae to grow to soak up the food source for the Cyano.

[Jon Lazar]

I've used careful vacuuming before as part of an anti-algae campaign. But I only suck of the top sheet of cyano; the same gunk you would be lifting up with tweezers.

[Chad]

Like Jon said, go slow and do a little at a time. How deep is your sand bed? If DSB, you could vacuum the whole depth of it, but I would work my way into it over several siphoning sessions during the course of a week or longer. Keep a test kit handy and take readings afterwards to make sure you dont catch a big spike and be prepared to do a good size water change if you see a spike in something.

 

IMO, doing a annual or semiannual deeper disturbance of stuff is good and helps keep your system healthy for the long-term. Just last week, I siphoned the top 1/3 of about 1/4 of my 7" DSB in my fuge and will procede to do the rest of it over the next couple of months, I didnt see a spike in nitrates, ammonia, or phosphates... but it sure made the water super cloudy for a few hours. (it also made one of the clams that appeared in my fuge decide it likes being attached to the front glass best... that makes it a pain to clean the fuge glass!!)

[bluefunelement]

I found that turkeybasting the rocks and putting powerheads toward the offending areas worked like a charm -

[bluefunelement]

I found that turkeybasting the rocks and putting powerheads toward the offending areas worked like a charm -

[flowerseller]

I use one of those python type deals and siphon my sand bed regularly, the parts I can reach that is.

Using the python allows me to pull out the detritus as part of a water exchange and keeps it from clouding the water or releasing all the nutrients into the water column.

[Hilary]

I use one of those python type deals and siphon my sand bed regularly, the parts I can reach that is.

Using the python allows me to pull out the detritus as part of a water exchange and keeps it from clouding the water or releasing all the nutrients into the water column.

 

That's what I had in mind. I've been doing it to my freshwater tanks (gravel) for years, but never the SW. Was afraid I'd be taking out the good as well as the bad.

 

I've used the chemical fixes on my 24g. They work (eventually), but even with extra airstones I've lost too many fish to want to try that on the 90g. I use the turkey baster daily on the rocks (because of the cyno), and get clouds of gunk every time. I try to do water changes right after blasting to get more of it out of the tank, but plenty settles back on the rocks - I'm sure that's part of the problem with my chemistry. Sand bed is about 3", and I have two refugiums (one also with about 3" of sand) attached.

[flowerseller]

Well I'm more of a siphon guy as opposed to a blow off guy.

I'd much rather try to siphon it off than stir it up.

On the occasions were that's not possible, I turn off ALL circulation, do the deed, allow a time to settle an d siphon all I can before returning circulation.

I find a lot of this hobby is simply technique. Have good techniques and the rest falls into place. Plus, NSW is relatively cheap in the scheme of things based upon

the advantages. Even on a 400g system.

[Coral Hind]

Back when I had sand in my tanks I would also do deep siphoning of the sand bed in sections every water change.

 

The only time I have ever had cyano issues is when I have had sand or CC in my tanks. Now that I am back to baring my bottom the cyano is never an issue.

[scott711]

I started using the bio pellets which has helped out a TON in eliminating cyno/phosphates

[Integral9]

I only vac my sandbed in the most dire of situations. Cyno build up in my tanks is usually the result of my refugium getting clogged up with detritus or hair algea. In both cases, the nutrient source has to be found and resolved or the cyno will just keep coming back. In the case of the detritus, I increased the sandbed in the 'fuge with a 10lb bag of LS that I just dumped on top of the existing bed of detritus. The extra bacteria from the LS made quick work of my cyano and cleaned up the sandbed in the 'fuge nicely. In the case of algea, I usually just pull it out as it tends to be on the surface or attached to my egg-crate filter (keeps the larger critters in the fuge). My last bout, which I am currently dealing with, I believe was the result of me stirring up my sand bed while removing rocks. I'm getting my tank ready for transport across the room and "trying" (that's the key word there) not to crash it.

 

fwiw: Cyno seems to have a hard time building up a sand bed that's shifting. ie: I can put a few grains of sand on the cyano and it seems to just melt through it in a day. So a sand sifting sea star would be a good option I think.