Comments on: Should You Clean The Sand In Your Aquarium

By: Titus

Titus — Thu, 23 Jun 2011 00:02:55 +0000

I don’t clean my DSB but use critters suck as dimond goby, snails and sand sifting sea stars. I have found that disturbing the DSB increaseses ammonia levels and will desimate bacteria needed for ammonia conversion.

By: John

John — Sun, 03 Oct 2010 16:44:47 +0000

Hi.

You’ll be cleaning a decorative bed then, need to be careful with a DSB.

By: R Savard

R Savard — Mon, 27 Sep 2010 16:33:52 +0000

Useful tips! I personally clean the sand to make certain that there are no food particles left there when I'm doing my aquarium maintenance. Thanks.

By: Fish Tank Sand Pros and Cons - Should You Use Sand Or Gravel? | ArticlesOnNet

Wed, 20 May 2009 16:35:12 +0000

[...] Should You Clean The Sand In Your Aquarium | Aquarists Online …… clean is imperative to maintaining excellent water quality but should you clean the sand? … That Fish Blog. The Home Aquarium. The Reef Tank. Trance Reef … [...]

By: John

John — Fri, 25 Jan 2008 19:25:46 +0000

I’ll stick my nose in and upset Peter! Maybe! Joking apart, deep sand beds do process the full nitrogen cycle – and so does live rock of good quality. The two together make great filtration. I feed my deep sand bed once a week to maintain the population in and on it, taking care not to overfeed of course.

By: Peter Cunningham

Peter Cunningham — Mon, 21 Jan 2008 20:17:05 +0000

Hi Jeffry,

In my opinion a deep sand bed is anywhere between 2 and 6 inches in depth. After 2 inches deep anaerobic areas will start to form.

It is imperative that the deep sand bed is made up of sand which is of the correct size in onder for the sand bed to perform at full efficiency and not become clogged. It needs to be ‘turned over’ times in order to be kept clean by the various ‘critters’ which live in it – of course we have to ensure that there are enough in there by introducing them in the first place.

I am also of the opinion that a deep sand bed must be fed at the beginning so that the critter population will increase.

A deep sand bed in my opinion is one of the best filtration medias available as it is the only one which can process all the way through to nitrogen gas.

In your aquapod 3 inches of sand would equate to a deep sand bed – what size of grain did you use and are you feeding it?

Thanks for letting us know about the link – should be working now.

Peter

By: jeffry r. johnston

jeffry r. johnston — Mon, 21 Jan 2008 18:14:30 +0000

How deep is a deep sand bed? I have a 24-gallon AquaPod with 30 lbs of sand. I think it’s about 3 inches thick. Also, the “deep sand bed” link within the article isn’t working.