Vacuuming sand wars. Yes or no?

[Gargamel35]

I know a lot reef aquarium hobbyists. And i know a lot of professionals in this business too. And yet sand vacuuming topic always causes a war between them.

Some say you need to vacuum once per week. Other you need to do it once per month. Others you shouldn't do it at all ever.

That tells me, that whatever you do, it's fine. Looks like our tanks can deal with vacuuming or no vacuuming and this topis suddenly looks stupid.

In last couple years there are more and more people that say you shouldn't vacuum at all, because you kill or mess up all the animals and good bakterias in the sand, causing cyano outbreaks, and other problems. Others are still saying you should vacuum so you will avoid getting toxins from sand into water.

Who is right? Who is wrong? Why?

I have a 120 gallon reef system that i want to make it right. I'm doing everything i can to make it work. I listen reefers, professionals and others, filter the information, double/triple check everything to do it the right way, but this sand vacuuming thing is completely 50/50. My sand bed is less then 0,5 inch high (advice by most pro reefers) and right now the best around me are pro NO vacuume.

So 0,2 to 0,4 inch (1cm) high sand bed and NO vacuuming is the advice i got by people who are considered modern, great reefers in my country. More traditional reefers are still going by 0,4 inch to 0,8 inch high sand bed and vacuuming.

Help, help.

 

[PeteStarks]

I don't vacuum my sand bed, but I do (lightly!) shoot the discolored spots with a turkey baster to flip them a little when I am feeling extra OCD.

 

[ReefkeeperZ]

I don't generally vacuum my sand bed but when running a deep sand bed to help prevent OLD sand bed syndrome will occasionally vacuum a small patch of it to reset small areas at a time.

there are a lot of things that live in your sand bed and vacuuming does remove a lot of them which of course is constantly upsetting to the balance of your sand bed, however if you are doing it every time your tank will reach an equilibrium with your methods.

a shallow sand bed is less affected detrimentally by vacuuming as long as you are ensuring it stays aerobic through stirring or nassarius snails or other means, and as long as it's not a hit or miss maintenance step.

in a ssb I would suggest it is best to either, always do it, never do it or only target heavy detritus build up areas. but just pick one.

In a DSB vacuuming is Hugely detrimental and should almost never be done, except in really small areas like a 3"x3" area in a small tank or 6"x6" area in a large tank this basically resets that region of sand and allows it to start over (doing too large of an area can cause spiking or detrimental gas release in a large amount.)

And that is my thought on the vacuum wars, you either can or not, but pick a method and stick to it, swapping around a lot leads to a lack of equilibrium. There are pros and cons to every maintenance style or method in this hobby. and almost nothing is purely cut and dry or black and white.

 

[ReefkeeperZ]

with your sand bed I personally would just stir it with a finger every now and then to kick up detritus (which feeds corals) and allows my filtration do do what I have filtration for, which is handle the waste.

 

[Bent]

I vacuum mine. It gets nasty I couldn’t imagine letting that sit.

 

[Gargamel35]

I vacuum mine. It gets nasty I couldn't imagine letting that sit.

This is my point. Those who vacuum, say it's important, because the sand bed gets dirty. Those who don't, claim if the flow is right and you use right animals (nassarius snails, etc...) sand bed shouldn't be dirty.

 

[Gargamel35]

So i think the point is this:
If you are a serious and good reef keeper, you have the right animals, right flow, etc and you don't need to vacuum sand bed, because it doesn't get dirty.

If you don't have everything 100%, sand bed gets dirty and you need to vacuum it to keep it clean (and maybe cause another problem down the road, so you need to vacuum all the time).

 

[johnike]

I let my Cucumbers do the work.

 

[RobZilla04]

I vacuum where I can. Early on I was able to do front and back of the aquascape; now just the front. Not entirely necessary especially since I have a diamond goby. Although I do like that fresh look of cleaned substrate.

Simply by observing what is removed via vacuuming, I won't stop doing it ever.

 

[mcgyvr]

So you think today is the day the war is going to end?

You should have just accepted your thought that whatever way is fine as there is no proof that one way is better than the other..

 

[ReefkeeperZ]

So you think today is the day the war is going to end?

You should have just accepted your thought that whatever way is fine as there is no proof that one way is better than the other..

except in the case of deep sand beds there is tons of proof it wrecks them lol

 

[alton]

I use a mixture of medium to coarse sand and some rubble 2" to 3". If I would vacuum I would deplete all the food for my Mysid and Pods. Plus I am sure I would vacuum a bunch of Mysid in the practice. But its your choice and whatever works for you. The longest I let a sand bed go before changing aquariums was 10 years and there never was an issue. Nitrates in this tank where around 2ppm.

 

[eder10986]

Two words: diamond goby. He takes care of our dirty biz

 

[ca1ore]

This is my point. Those who vacuum, say it's important, because the sand bed gets dirty. Those who don't, claim if the flow is right and you use right animals (nassarius snails, etc...) sand bed shouldn't be dirty.

Some people are republicans, others democrats. Some people like broccoli, others hate broccoli. Some people vacuum the sand, others don't. Do what you feel is right - unlikely to be the difference between success or failure. I see nothing wrong with a well reasoned, respectful debate. I don't vacuum my sand, but I'm open to the killer argument that says I ought to reconsider.

 

[ca1ore]

If you are a serious and good reef keeper, you have the right animals, right flow, etc and you don't need to vacuum sand bed, because it doesn't get dirty.

While I agree that the choices one makes can make sand cleaning unnecessary, the inference is unnecessarily pejorative and not correct. I know plenty of serious/good reefers that vacuum the sand bed. It's just a function of differing goals and philosophies for ones tank.

 

[gargoylenest]

5 years never vacuumed mine. ~2.5 inches deep. never had issues. Have nessarius snails and cucumber to clean it. Cucumber might be slow, but its working non stop and doing awesome job.

 

[Fredfish]

While I agree that the choices one makes can make sand cleaning unnecessary, the inference is unnecessarily pejorative and not correct. I know plenty of serious/good reefers that vacuum the sand bed. It's just a function of differing goals and philosophies for ones tank.

On top of that, no two tanks are exactly the same. When I tore down a tank with a 3" sand bed I found lots of 'gunk'. I've seen other tanks after the same time period the sand was much cleaner. I'm guessing it was the organisms present in the sand bed, but really who knows.

I would still never vacuum, but that's just me.

 

[FoxFace Fish]

tbh do what works best for you boom solved the problem

 

[HBtank]

Depends on the tank, inhabitants, and dominant algae. If your sand, or areas of sand get dirty.... clean em!

 

[D-Nak]

I think most of you who responded missed the fact that the OP's sandbed is only 1 cm thick. This is not even a SSB but is there more just to cover the bottom of the tank. It's probably not thick enough to even allow Nassarius snails to bury themselves. It definitely can't sustain enough for cucumbers or diamond gobies to survive (unless you got lucky and got one that actually eats enough fish food to stay healthy).

Since your sand is purely aesthetic, do what you would do with your car -- wash it if you like to make it look the way you like it. Or keep it dirty looking. Up to you.