to vacuum or not to vacuum???

[jenzabear]

Hey,

Just wanting to know everyone's opinions on vacuuming the sand in your tanks. We have a 72 bowfront tank with a 20 gallon sump, and our sandbed is approx 3-3.5 inches deep. We currently don't have the fine sand, we just have crushed coral. What are the pros and cons of both?

Thanks

 

[sir_dudeguy]

imo you shouldnt vacuum it..let it get cleaned naturally. Thats what a cleanup crew is sposed to do. For sand, get sand sifters, like maybe a diamond goby...i got one and my sand is perfectly clean now. Snails will also help out. I got ceriths and they do a great job on the sand. I also got nassarius snails, but they stay under the sand and dont really clean the top of it...they just get loose gunk and whatnot...not actually algae.

But for crushed coral, you do need to vacuum it, and imo, you'd be better off getting rid of the cc and getting actual sand. The cc, if not vacuumed often (which takes out all the pods and whatnot that are in there and are good) will just build up nitrates.

 

[cdentii1]

I use seaflour special grade sand with great sucess and never vacum just let the clean up crew do its work.

 

[jenzabear]

I had a feeling you guys would say that. I don't like the idea of vacuuming and removing all of the goodies in the sand but I don't want to get a nitrate build up either. We used to vacuum our tank all the time and have stopped for a while because we heard that we were removing all the pods and stuff.......hm...maybe we'll just have to switch to the fine sand... That should be really fun. My biggest concern with that is our rock structure and how remi=oving the stand will affest its stability and we also have a pearly jawfish, I don't really want ot mess with him that much either because it's kinda sensitive...... any other ideas?

 

[saul]

i had the crushed coral for a while and would vaccum it about once a month and my tank was fine... at the time however i just had fish... once i put live rock i replaced it with fine sand and i never vacuum that.

 

[ridetheducati]

Crush coral must be vaccumed. No way around it. This is a classic example of having your cake and eating it. Crush coral must be periodically cleaned at the expense of pods and worms living within.

 

[boxfishpooalot]

I think if your sand is really full of organics then you need to vacume it. Especially if you have nitrates. But I think vacuming one side one month then the other next month is best to minimize destroying the populations of denitriyers. Or vacuming the uper layer would be best.

 

[giantxtc]

I used to worry about this too.I added a small conch and he keeps things stirred up and clean for me.

 

[A.G]

You could add some spaghitti or bristleworm to your cc . they do an amazing job cleaning your cc of all the uneaten food or detriuts. Also, Brittlr stars are very good for keeping your cc clean as they feed on fish feces , missed food and organism that has died, snails and hermit crabs are also good.HTH