do you vacuum your sandbed?

I never touch my sand bed in my display either. I do vacuum the sand in my sump removing a little off the top every other month.
 
I just blow off the rocks with a turkey baster, and then do the water change. Seems some people do, and some don't...
 
I see no particular reason to vacuum the sand. I have a pretty extensive CUC (including Nassarius snails, bristle worms, a conch and brittle stars), high flow and pretty extensive sand bed fauna (mainly worms). About the only time I could see doing any vacuuming would be if I started getting cyano buildup (which I have not so far).

Perhaps a better question would be why do folks feel the need to vacuum the sand?
 
I don't necessarily vacume my sand bed, but once a month or so I will use a powerhead and turn the whole thing over right before a water change. Just to give you an idea of what I'm talking about, here's a picture of my 20 gallon tank after this has been done. Siphon that muck out!



Btw, for those of you who don't vacume your sand bed, don't kid yourself, your sand bed is full of this crap too. You might not be experiencing any problems now, but down the road it might be a whole different story. Time will tell... GL.
 
I personally would never recommend doing the above , you could spike peramaters that could turn your tank into a toxic waste land... just my 2cents, adequate flow and filtration will remove the above diatoms and detritus
 
After seeing what is in sand after I broke down a deep sand bed 6 or 7 years ago, and what has come out of every sand vaccing tpyicla depth sand....I vacuum my sand every water change, usually in 2 or 3 parts over a few water changes. I use CaribSea SeaFloor grade sand, and it is just large enough to work well with a standard gravel vac. Get that waste out of there :)
 
I do. I used to use a turkey baster but its to much action, things go flying. Now i just lightly vacuum the top layernot much though
 
After seeing what is in sand after I broke down a deep sand bed 6 or 7 years ago, and what has come out of every sand vaccing tpyicla depth sand....I vacuum my sand every water change, usually in 2 or 3 parts over a few water changes. I use CaribSea SeaFloor grade sand, and it is just large enough to work well with a standard gravel vac. Get that waste out of there :)

I do the same. Keep the waste out!
 
As I said above, I think theirs a difference between " Vacuuming the sand "
Or going over the top lightly like I do, not removing the sand or CUC, but getting any left over food laying around

I have strong power heads on my 180, and plenty of flow, and I still get all the junk laying around on top of the sand

I have a large CUC, So I have to be carful not vacuuming up anything I don't want to :)
 
FYI - Then go the way you wish---
Test for phosphate in the water column.
Then test for it in the sand bed.
When I did mine the results were almost double.
 
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