Should I be vacuuming my sand to remove nitrates?
- Thread starter LouB
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billdogg
Well-known member
If there is detritus collecting anywhere it can be very useful. It's also a good way to get rid of cyanobacteria if it is there.
I have had the same Python Siphon for almost 30 years and still use it regularly, although nowhere near as much as I used to when my tank was a messy Fish Only. In theory, at least, a well balanced reef tank shouldn't need to be siphoned. A vital job of your CUC is to help keep it stirred up.
I have had the same Python Siphon for almost 30 years and still use it regularly, although nowhere near as much as I used to when my tank was a messy Fish Only. In theory, at least, a well balanced reef tank shouldn't need to be siphoned. A vital job of your CUC is to help keep it stirred up.
AlSimmons
New member
You might be better off just stirring up your sand bed with a small powerhead every now & then right before a water change. Remove 10-20% of the water and run a filter sock until the water clears up. The siphon will work though don't get me wrong, but your kind of limited by the rock structure and it's amazing what can accumulate under/behind your rocks sometimes. A powerhead can get to those nooks & crannies. Also, you won't be removing some of the beneficial micro fauna that live within your substrate.
Just something to think about. GL.
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Jesterrace
New member
Many of us use sand sifting gobies. Much easier in the long run.
I lightly vacuum and stir it up during a water change. I've done both vacuuming and not touching it. When I took the "œnot touch it" method, I created a time bomb. It eventually collected a huge amount of detritus. Now I keep an inch or less of sand and keep it stirred up with snails and stir it and lightly siphon during water changes. It's been a much better method for me. I'm not sure about nitrates, but I certainly have less detritus.
crawlerman
Member
I always vacuum the sand with every water change. I can't say it does anything to nitrates, but I know a lot of crud comes out.
Tripod1404
Active member
I would not. Generally it is not good to disturb the anoxic layers of sand.
I think it depends on how deep your sand bed is and if you keep it stirred up. If you have a deeper layer of sand and have never touched it, yeah, it's probably gonna be a bad time. I have a shallow bed and have ceriths and nassarius snails that help keep it stirred up then i stir it up and siphon lightly once a week. That's worked best for me but this is one of those topics that you're gonna get a lot of different opinions on. I've also had a deeper sand bed that I never touched and it got loaded with detritus and eventually I had a ton of cyano and other problems. That probably would have gone better had I used some sand stirring critters, though.
Should I be vacuuming my sand to remove nitrates?
Well, it depends on grain size and what your using to suck up the water. If your using super fine sand, I'm not sure you'll be able to siphon it. I'm using Fiji pink and feel like if it was any smaller it'd be really hard to siphon. I bought one of these recently which works well, I just have to take it easy and lightly siphon:
Genuine TERAPUMP Aquarium Cleaner Aquarium Fish Tank Gravel Sand Cleaner with Long Nozzle N Water Flow Controller - BPA Free (model: TRFTCLN) https://www.amazon.com/dp/B011DDJZ9Y?ref=yo_pop_ma_swf
It works fairly well but I'll still suck up some sand if I get too aggressive.
What I generally do is gently stir up the sand, just rake across it and the detritus usually stays on top or in the water column. I have a couple of areas where detritus gets trapped so I gently turkey bast those areas as well as my LR and again, the detritus stays on top of the sand or in the water column. Once I've done that, I'll siphon the sand lightly. I just keep an eye on it and if it starts sucking up too much sand, I back off for a bit. TBH, I don't mind sucking a small amount of the sand bed out every water change. Eventually, it'll get low enough and I'll just add more sand. I've always thought that "œold tank syndrome" is likely caused by sand and rock absorbing phosphates and other stuff over time until it can't, then it releases it back into the tank. So I try to keep my rock and sand as clean as possible. I feel like detritus is one of your worst enemies in a reef tank so I try to get out as much as possible. I kinda regret adding sand to my latest build even though I love the look and hate the look of BB, but it would be so much easier to suck out detritus in a BB or false bottom tank!
If you are using super fine sand, I'd just lightly stir or take across it, then siphon right above it. Just find the sweet spot where you're sucking up the detritus that's laying on the sand but not the sand itself. Your other option would be to stir the hell out of it and just siphon it out of the water column and then turn your pump back on and send the rest into your sump to be caught by a filter sock or similar and your skimmer. I do this every once and a while too and just create a detritus snow storm.
Well, it depends on grain size and what your using to suck up the water. If your using super fine sand, I'm not sure you'll be able to siphon it. I'm using Fiji pink and feel like if it was any smaller it'd be really hard to siphon. I bought one of these recently which works well, I just have to take it easy and lightly siphon:
Genuine TERAPUMP Aquarium Cleaner Aquarium Fish Tank Gravel Sand Cleaner with Long Nozzle N Water Flow Controller - BPA Free (model: TRFTCLN) https://www.amazon.com/dp/B011DDJZ9Y?ref=yo_pop_ma_swf
It works fairly well but I'll still suck up some sand if I get too aggressive.
What I generally do is gently stir up the sand, just rake across it and the detritus usually stays on top or in the water column. I have a couple of areas where detritus gets trapped so I gently turkey bast those areas as well as my LR and again, the detritus stays on top of the sand or in the water column. Once I've done that, I'll siphon the sand lightly. I just keep an eye on it and if it starts sucking up too much sand, I back off for a bit. TBH, I don't mind sucking a small amount of the sand bed out every water change. Eventually, it'll get low enough and I'll just add more sand. I've always thought that "œold tank syndrome" is likely caused by sand and rock absorbing phosphates and other stuff over time until it can't, then it releases it back into the tank. So I try to keep my rock and sand as clean as possible. I feel like detritus is one of your worst enemies in a reef tank so I try to get out as much as possible. I kinda regret adding sand to my latest build even though I love the look and hate the look of BB, but it would be so much easier to suck out detritus in a BB or false bottom tank!
If you are using super fine sand, I'd just lightly stir or take across it, then siphon right above it. Just find the sweet spot where you're sucking up the detritus that's laying on the sand but not the sand itself. Your other option would be to stir the hell out of it and just siphon it out of the water column and then turn your pump back on and send the rest into your sump to be caught by a filter sock or similar and your skimmer. I do this every once and a while too and just create a detritus snow storm.
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If you put a screen between two layers of substrate, you can both, vacuuming the "top" layer, and leave the bottom alone ( as Tripod1504 points out)
If you then leave 2" of free water under this and create a negative pressure in this area, the water will "fall through" this media and be recirculated into the column.
A cheap mans sump!
If you then leave 2" of free water under this and create a negative pressure in this area, the water will "fall through" this media and be recirculated into the column.
A cheap mans sump!
That sounds kind of like a plenum(s?).
sand sifting starfish, snails, goby. Never cleaned the sand. Then one day after 5 years, did a good vacuuming and lost all the fish to Mycobacteria (based on necropsy) within 1 week.
Pathologist felt that the bacteria had likely been in the sand bed all along and massive amounts were released into the water at one time.
So either clean the sand bed frequently or never. I just would never let it sit for 5 years then stir it up again. I think the critters do a great job without my help
Pathologist felt that the bacteria had likely been in the sand bed all along and massive amounts were released into the water at one time.
So either clean the sand bed frequently or never. I just would never let it sit for 5 years then stir it up again. I think the critters do a great job without my help
