Vacuum your reef sand bed?

[AS]

Should I vacuum my reef sand in my 500g mixed reef?

Have 1.5" bed on fine crushed coral. I use a siphon attached to a aquarium vacuum that removes as waste out without creating a cloud in the tank.

If yes, would you do some with every water change?

I realize many of you recommend no sand bed at all.

Thanks
AS

 

[dave.m]

It has a lot more to do with what sort of clean-up crew you maintain in your tank, including fish. Some types of inverts turn your sandbed over for you, such as nassarius and nerrites snails and conchs. Once in a while you get lucky and find you have unintentionally imported a chiton or two to your tank. Some sand-sifting gobies are very good at cleaning the sand for you. Also, some wrasses bury themselves in the sand at night, assisting in the turning over of the sand.

It also depends on how deep the sand is. Usually a couple of inches is the most I would have in the tank. Something that people who maintain a separate deep sand filter (>4") have learned (the hard way) is that a power outage of more than an hour or two is all it takes for deep sand to turn putrid, the sand then having to be completely discarded, the filter needing to be restarted with fresh sand.

A final factor, the main one many would say, is the aquarist. How much and how often to you overfeed? (Confess! CONFESS!!!!) How dirty your tank gets and how fast it gets that way is more about you and the way you maintain your tank (nothing personal).

Dave.M

 

[ca1ore]

I have a high input/export tank and I find it unnecessary to ever vacuum the sand bed. It simply doesn't build up much in the way of detritus - and what does work it's way into the sand is food for all the worms that live there.

 

[AS]

Dave,

Do you find simple turning the sand sufficient vs actually removing waste?


CA1ORE,

I assume your are using some filter media or sock in your high volume tank, can you describe.

I have high volume of water but still get waste, I don't feed much.

 

[ca1ore]

Actually I don't use any kind of filter sock. I do use poly filters, and GAC in a canister, so those end up being a mechanical filter of sorts, but my main source of particulate removal is via a settling chamber built into my sump system (along with the skimmer). I don't think my tank magically produces less crap than anyone else's tank, I just try to employ natural processes as much as possible - in other words, find something that eats it!

I have a pretty significant CUC, and because I don't stir up the sand bed, I have worms and worm tracks throughout it. Also plenty of fish that will eat algae and detritus.

I guess I'm not philosophically opposed to vacuuming the sand bed, I do it in a secondary reef tank that I employ as an invert QT, I just think that if you can avoid doing it, you're better off.

 

[dave.m]

Do you find simple turning the sand sufficient vs actually removing waste?

No, turning the sand does nothing in itself to clean up the crud. Vacuum if you need to. Don't let the detritus accumulate. As ca1ore says, it is easier to have something that actively pursues and consumes the crud for you than to have to spend a lot of time and money on mechanical filters.

Dave.M

 

[wowkingjames]

I vacuum my sand into the sump where a sock catches the debris. You be amazed what it catches, once the sock is full I put another sock on.

 

[Allmost]

I do, when I feel there is a bacteria, or detritus build up.

I do usually 1/3 or 1/5 of the tank with each water change.

IMO, it helps export the unneeded waste/detritus.

 

[Dmorty217]

I never vacuum my sand bed, and don't use filter socks because cleaning them is a PIMA. My sump is setup like ca1ores and I have really high flow in the DT.

 

[Nanook]

Due to my large wrasses, I can't keep a clean up crew as they get eaten So, I siphon out and remove my SSB every two or three years and replace with new CaribSea special grade reef sand. 225 gallon water changes are easier to do by turning on a pump and siphoning to the drain, versus trying to mess with the sand bed.

 

[Dapg8gt]

I do, when I feel there is a bacteria, or detritus build up.

I do usually 1/3 or 1/5 of the tank with each water change.

IMO, it helps export the unneeded waste/detritus.

This..

I have high import and high export and I use filter socks and still get muck in the lower areas of my shallowish sand bed. It's not a flow thing as I'm running 4 ecotech pumps and a sicce 5 for a return so I feel I'm covered in that dept lol. ..

I think its inevitable that debris will settle out in the sand bed and eventually begin to cause issues. How long who knows I just do small parts every other water change and it seems to work for me so far..

Fwiw on my old tank I never touched the same bed and after 12 years I was surprised that while it was dirty it didn't have any bad smells and the tank was still thriving. So I'm sure colore and the others are right in the sense that if it's there something will eat it.. But that something needs to poop too =)..