Curiuos about who subscribes to the " Never touch the Sand Bed theory"

Tankkeepers

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I read alot and all the 0 water change tanks that crashed without a reason I belive this is why the hydrogen needs to be refreshed to re equalize the electron balance
 

BanjoBandito

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Seems like bad advice not to stir a sandbed. I've had a lot of people online and off claim it's the #1 reason for long term tank crashes (tanks over a year old....in the 1.5-2.5 year range)
 

alain Bouchard

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never cleaned my sandbed, but my cucumber clean it once in a while (well, he is alone for a 180gal with a 2-4inch of sand, so he clean it in about 1 year, maybe?)
 

Kongar

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New tanks with dry rock - if you're constantly cleaning/stirring the sand bed, it's like starting a bare bottom dry rock tank. ie has it's challenges with bacteria/dino blooms. If you leave it alone, things stabilize quickly. If you disturb it after not touching it for a while, all hell breaks loose. I would imagine this leads to a lot of hard discussion one way or the other.

My vote: if it's a new tank - let it ride for the most part. After a year, start cleaning small portions with water changes all the way to the bottom - but only small portions. I'd shoot for no more than 1/3 of the sandbed per month gets disturbed. From there you can work up to whatever frequency you like. My vote would be to then work up to cleaning most or all of it each week with every water change. Turns into a toilet down there if you never clean it...
 

EricR

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It’s to satisfying watching all of the poo get sucked up for me not to vac
ewwwww... I LIKE IT!

Only had sand for like 6 months and never touched it,,, until I read a bunch here then started plunge siphoning a small area every water change.

Just went through a tank transfer and used new sand so now not touching it for awhile (for sake of CUC) ... but will probably go back to the plunge/siphon "watch poo get sucked up" method when it starts re-establishing.
 

Saltyanimals

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Agree with the do it occasionally but only sections at a time as to not throw the tank balance off. Can’t imagine not doing it considering the amount of crap that gets vacuumed out. Realistically I’m only able to get the front half of the tank anyways as the back and under rocks is not accessible.
 

Idech

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You either constantly vacuum it or never touch it. Don't vacuum it like once every few months it really disturbs the ecosystem of the tank
That.

I killed half my fish because I vacuumed the sand that had never been disturbed in my freshwater tank.

You either do it often enough, or you don’t. Right now with the fish stirring it and the snails, I am not vacuuming it.
 

Mr Cypher

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Every week religiously I figure if I keep on top of it I won't have issues with it plus who doesn't like a almost painfully reflective white sand bed lol
 

dvgyfresh

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Haven’t touched the sand bed in 1.5 years , I leave that to the snails /bristleworms/conch ect..
 

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