vacuuming sand

[tag]

how often do you all vacuum your sand. i'm finding that my snails and the bristle worms are leaving tons of poop. are there any good devices that make this task easier other than a siphon?

 

[tanker]

Worm and snail poop?? I have never vacuumed my gravel. I have snails (about 15-20) in my tank. Maybe my cuke is eatting it.

 

[Palancar]

Never for me as I have a DSB. A properly functioning DSB should maintain itself. Other types of SB I'm not sure.

 

[dchao]

If there are detritus or snail poops in the corners, use a turkey blaster or small PH to get rid of them. You can also just siphon them out of the tank during water change, add then some new sand back if it's necessary.

 

[Teremei]

You need pods. .

Seriously, get yourself a fuge and get tons of chaeto and macro with tons of "pods" in it. They will take care of the nightly clean-up. You can even dump them in your main tank if you rocks have alot of holes. .

By some online or even get some from local reefers. .

www.oceanpods.com (nice pods bottle)
www.ipsf.com (nice amphipod package)

 

[Pandora]

In general, you shouldn't be vaccuuming your sand if it is more than an inch or so deep (a really shallow sandbed that is there only for looks)... and once you start in those tanks, you'll have to pretty much keep it immaculate. The sand is there for it's biological capabilities in most tanks, you'll destroy those bacteria if you do.

 

[atkinsg]

Hmmm, I vacuum half my sand each week and have seen no ill effects. Is there any reason other than bacterial destruction that this should not be done?

 

[Palancar]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=6714517#post6714517 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by atkinsg
Hmmm, I vacuum half my sand each week and have seen no ill effects. Is there any reason other than bacterial destruction that this should not be done?

You say you are seeing no ill effect. But you must be vaccuming for a reason. Probably because detritus is accumulating on it, correct? That may be the ill effect of your vaccuming. Sort of ironic. I would try letting it go and let it do it's job. Give it a chance to work.

 

[rpeeples]

If you have a DSB-Deep Sand Bed...3" or greater DONT.

Do a search on DSBs to read reasons not to and the benefits of a DSB...IMHOP...

 

[Pandora]

rpeeples: that's just your opinion and that of the BB faction. I think he should make up his own mind, because there's no conclusive evidence that DSB's all crash (mine has not, and I can find you people who have been keeping DSBs for much longer than me--and certainly much longer than your tank has been around). But I think you were getting to that in a small way by telling him to do a search on the topic, because it is a useful controversy to familiarize with.

 

[Palancar]

I think maybe he meant don't vacuum, not don't own a DSB.

 

[atkinsg]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=6776975#post6776975 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Palancar
You say you are seeing no ill effect. But you must be vaccuming for a reason. Probably because detritus is accumulating on it, correct? That may be the ill effect of your vaccuming. Sort of ironic. I would try letting it go and let it do it's job. Give it a chance to work.

Ill effect refers to the effectiveness of the nitrifying bacteria/overall health of the livestock. Previously, Pandora stated that vacuuming the sand will destroy the bacteria. For my tank, this is not the case.