View Full Version : How often do you vacuum your sand bed, if at all?
pmrossetti
06/04/2011, 02:51 PM
What's your technique for getting gunk not sand?
All at once or fraction at a time?
And what about around rocks and rear of tank? just leave it be?
Lynnmw1208
06/05/2011, 08:59 AM
I vacuum out my sand bed every time I do a water change. stuff really builds up if you don't. I also left room to siphon behind all my rocks as well.
tspors
06/05/2011, 09:08 AM
Never, no need to. Good CUC and proper flow and water exchange let nature take it's course. If you need to vacumn you are putting to much gunk making stuff in the tank.
Soopabruva1
06/05/2011, 09:19 AM
I've always wanted to know this myself. Dont you end up sucking up a bunch of your sand bed?
collie man
06/05/2011, 09:20 AM
ive alway understood that the sand should never be touched. i service fish tanks for a living and my boss tells me to siphon the sand bed each time. i guess its just a matter of what you have had success with.
jimmy_beaner
06/05/2011, 09:27 AM
I vacuum the front every 4-6 weeks. When a bunch of sand is in the vacuum tube, I pinch off flow and it all falls out. This started as I still have a very small bit of cyano in the front area on the sand. More so any time I add a new small piece of base rock (for attaching new corals to). I realize the rock is leaching phosphate, but it'll go away.
jenglish
06/05/2011, 10:21 AM
Every week, all the way to the bottom.
Frankfish
06/05/2011, 10:32 AM
I just let the CUC take care of it. That, along with good flow, and I make sure not to overfeed keeps the sand looking clean. I do however occasionally take a powerhead and hit the dead areas, but I don't know if that really does anything.
R33f3r
06/05/2011, 10:33 AM
Every week when I do a wc, I'll siphon out the detritus and blow some off the rocks.
Pallobi
06/05/2011, 10:33 AM
imo, in a reef, vacuuming your sand isnt something you would wana do for many reasons... proper cleanup crew will take care of all of it...
Toddrtrex
06/05/2011, 10:39 AM
If you have a shallow sandbed, there is nothing wrong, IMO, with vacuuming it. I do it with each weekly water change. Been doing it that way for 15+ years. The amount of crap that I remove still stocks me. Even with a good clean up crew there still can be a build up of detritus. For me, my S. Haddonis love to eat clean up crews.
TruespeedEM1
06/05/2011, 10:53 AM
I have a crushed coral/sand mix and vacuum my sand bed every 2 weeks when I do my water changes.
Ive seen that if you have a straight sand bed, you should maunally stir the bed to bring whatever debris are in there to the top, the siphon it off the top of the sand bed.
d0ughb0y
06/05/2011, 11:03 AM
no matter how much clean up crew you have, it will never clean it as well as vacuuming it. once you try vacuuming, you will see how much crap builds up in the sand, in a week, regardless of how much clean up crew you have.
elegance coral
06/05/2011, 11:20 AM
A clean up crew will never keep a sand bed clean. It's simply impossible. This is like lions eating all the zebras in Africa, or deer eating all the vegetation in a forest. Nature simply does not work this way. If you have a large clean up crew living in the sand, you have a large amount of detritus feeding them.
I have spray bars that keep sand and detritus from accumulating under my rocks, and I vacuum my sand when I do water changes.
RadReefer
06/05/2011, 11:33 AM
I have a psitol shrimp that pretty much churns all the sand in the display on a daily basis but I still vacuum the sand bed on a weekly basis. I have had no ill affects and the sand bed is nice and white with no algae growth, and water quality is fine.
I don't touch my sand. If you are using live rock your sand will be seeded into live sand after 6 months and it should sustain itself.
allsps40
06/05/2011, 11:42 AM
I vac mine every 2-3 water changes. Gets dirty quick.
d0ughb0y
06/05/2011, 11:43 AM
don't the clean up crew poop out what they eat? so you will never have a perfectly clean sand as long as you have clean up crews. bacteria on live rock and sand will take a long time to consume detritus. If you have never touched the sand, one day when you tear down your tank, you will see how much crap has accumulated in your substrate, and people will clear out the room where the tank is once you start scooping out the sand.
Pallobi
06/05/2011, 11:45 AM
If you have a shallow sandbed, there is nothing wrong, IMO, with vacuuming it. I do it with each weekly water change. Been doing it that way for 15+ years. The amount of crap that I remove still stocks me. Even with a good clean up crew there still can be a build up of detritus. For me, my S. Haddonis love to eat clean up crews.
ok, i agree, a very shallow sandbed wouldnt do too much harm if any...
duncantse
06/05/2011, 11:55 AM
Every week, all the way to the bottom.
+1
This is exactly how I do it. Use a gravel vac and place it all the way down to the bottom of the tank. You can't believe how much detritus is in the sand.
FlammySnake
06/05/2011, 12:13 PM
If you have a shallow sand bed and you've never used a gravel vac, use it once on one spot. Look at how much crap comes up, then try and tell me you should never do it.
socal86
06/05/2011, 12:18 PM
i vac the sandbed every week when i do the water change cant believe how dirty it gets CUC does a good job but they still need the extra hand lol
jb61264
06/05/2011, 01:00 PM
Never, no need to. Good CUC and proper flow and water exchange let nature take it's course. If you need to vacumn you are putting to much gunk making stuff in the tank.
+1 - I agree with this and never have had to touch my sandbed in the three years I've been running. In addition to cleanup crew, there are also "maintenance" fish that can help such as certain gobies (my Rainsford goby actually continuously sifts through the sand as does my pinkspot goby which is paired with a pistol shrimp)
tspors
06/05/2011, 01:09 PM
Bingo ^^^
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