Should I be vacuuming my sandbed?
- Thread starter ibrat82
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heathlindner25
New member
I hit bottom with the vacuum gravel once a week
Yes you should. If you dont clean the sand bed, detritus will build up. I can see the bottom of my tank from the underneath, and I started to notice dark pockets developing when I didn't clean the sand bed. I had zero nitrates and phosphate below .03, however, if the sand bed got stirred up the levels would rise. That told be I had a bomb hiding in my sand bed. I started to aggressively vacuum the sand bed during water changes. It was crazy how much Marine creature waste was in the sand. The smell of the water was horrible.
SLOreefer805
New member
The only time you should avoid doing the sandbed is if your going for the deep sandbed. But leave that to more experienced ones. I don't vacume as much as I will stir sections of the sandbed during my weekly cleanings. If you get a goby they will do a good job keeping the sandbed stirred up.
TimeConsumer
Active member
2.5" isn't deep enough to be so anaerobic that you should avoid cleaning it. My sandbed in my 75g was 2.5" in some places and over 4" in others and when I went to remove it there wasn't much in the way of anaerobic sections even in the deep portions. But the grain size of your sand and your livestock matter in that too. Now the 6" sand bed in my fuge was a whole other story.
Maybe that's why I've not had an issue with my sand bed. My diamond watchman does a great job. There's plenty of food in there that I wouldn't want to vacuum out. My cuc and goby do just fine
Yes, it's true. My tank has been setup for 2 1/2 years now and I've yet to touch the sand-bed or blow detritus from my rocks. I also do foolish things like not running filter socks. It's a miracle there's anything left alive in my tank.
At the end of the day there are folks who swear by vacuuming the sandbed, and those who never do it. That both 'camps' have impressive tanks to show for their efforts suggests that it is not material to the success of a reef tank. Consequently you should do whatever makes the most sense to you.
frushstrated1
New member
snails in sandbed
snails in sandbed
my tanks been running about a year and the sandbed is approx 2" deep or was until my blue cheek goby moved it to his liking.i used to move it all back to even it out,but he would just pile it up again.
it's now just just really two piles of sand either end of the tank,one about 4" deep and one about 2.5" deep.
i vaccum these as best as possible but it's not easy as tank is deep and there's a lot of live rock in there,consequently i'm starting to get a build up of nasty unwanted waste.
i'm in the process of buying some nassarius snails to put in there but my question is should i still vac the sand once they are or will they do the job for me.
thanks in anticipation of anyone that can help out.
snails in sandbed
my tanks been running about a year and the sandbed is approx 2" deep or was until my blue cheek goby moved it to his liking.i used to move it all back to even it out,but he would just pile it up again.
it's now just just really two piles of sand either end of the tank,one about 4" deep and one about 2.5" deep.
i vaccum these as best as possible but it's not easy as tank is deep and there's a lot of live rock in there,consequently i'm starting to get a build up of nasty unwanted waste.
i'm in the process of buying some nassarius snails to put in there but my question is should i still vac the sand once they are or will they do the job for me.
thanks in anticipation of anyone that can help out.
CStrickland
New member
I vac every week. Idk how much good it's actually doing, but once I saw what comes out of the sand it's a no-brainer. When I have skipped a week or three for vacation or life, I've noticed my nitrates start to creep up. I feed heavy and don't have a lot of rock tho, so maybe I have less wiggle room.
cloak
New member
I don't necessarily vacuum my substrate, but I will use a small power head and stir the entire thing up once every month or so right before a water change. A filter sock is also used for a few hours to polish the water as well. I've been doing this since the tank was first set up about 8 years ago and so far so good. I would also like to point out that I don't use any GFO and I rarely use GAC. I don't have a refugium, an ATS or a RDSB. Just a skimmer, regular water changes and a little elbow grease seems to get the job done. I use tap water too btw. 
Getting into the habit of vacuuming your sand bed on a regular basis will definitely help out in the long run IMO. Also, you might want to look into the method I mentioned above with the power head. With a vacuum your kind of limited by the rockwork, but with a power head nothing is off limits. It's amazing how much crap can accumulate UNDER your rocks over time. Get that muck out! GL.
Getting into the habit of vacuuming your sand bed on a regular basis will definitely help out in the long run IMO. Also, you might want to look into the method I mentioned above with the power head. With a vacuum your kind of limited by the rockwork, but with a power head nothing is off limits. It's amazing how much crap can accumulate UNDER your rocks over time. Get that muck out! GL.
It really depends on whether your sand bed is alive or not. If you have spaghetti worms, pods, etcetera, let them do their thing and do not vacuum. At six weeks, you probably don't have an established detrivore population, so you may want to vacuum.
Sometime down the road, if you have made efforts to establish dertivores, you won't need to. To test this, don't vacuum and see if detritus builds up. If it does, vacuum. If it doesn't, don't.
Sometime down the road, if you have made efforts to establish dertivores, you won't need to. To test this, don't vacuum and see if detritus builds up. If it does, vacuum. If it doesn't, don't.
