siphon or not the sand

[onix]

Hi, my tank is set up about 1 years and have in the main tank a DSB of 4" approximately. I never siphon the sand, just stir and vacuum all the debris I can. My nitrates always are in 20 ppm. In past days a paid for a clean service $70 to my tank, just to see how they do. The only think that they do and I not is the siphon process. They tell me that was very important siphon at last 1 time every two months. Is this correct or may be I have to siphon in every water change. Also they tell me that is goos idea siphon all the sands but in my case they only siphon ~2" because harmful gases in button of thanks. Their suggestion was that I siphon the sand more deep in every siphon process until I reach the bottom.

Any suggestion or recommendation?

Thanks

 

[ReefGuy69]

your probably going to get contradicting answers with that question because i have heard plenty of times both arguments. Some ppl are going to say you have a DSB and then you dont disturb the bottom layers of the sand for that where the breakdown of the bacteria is.. and then others will say if you have a DSB then you need to keep the deep part of the sand constantly turning. Others will say ditch the DSB and go with an inch or so of sand so you dont get any build up on the deep part of the sand and you can keep it mixed easily with a cleanup crew or sand sifting livestock or just by siphoning it. I would say in your case since your at 20ppm then i would check everything about your set up to see why its that high, if you cannot link it to anything else i would lead to your DSB and just for kicks and giggles take sand out little by little and see if your nitrate level goes down. Then you may be the key to this controversy as long as you dont change anything else.

 

[W Churchill]

Following on from this. My tank is very small (48 ltrs) the bottom area is about 1080 cm2 of which only around 400 cm2 is accessible by syphon. My tank is currently only partly stocked and can see this accessible area diminishing dramatically, my sand is only around 2 cm deep, once it is established and fully stocked will it actually be worth syphoning the very few areas that will likely be accessible.

Winston