Do you stir your sand bed or vac?

[nmqtrhrse]

I have done both. When my LFS comes to check on things, he will vacuum the bed in my RedSea 250. But then the mess starts growing on top and I have to work on alkaline levels, etc. Now I don’t do anything as I have a sand sifting blenny. My little Fluval, I don’t do anything as the clown and d@msel play in it and keep it stirred up for me.

 

[Daniel@R2R Verified Admin]

I pulled the whole sand bed to rinse it. Now I stir at water change time.

 

[seahorsemaster]

How do you maintain your sand bed? Do you use a gravel vac to clean it out every time you do a water change, do you stir it once a week, or just leave it be? There's some debate about what the best method is -- if you vac, you'll clean out old detritus and keep the water clean, but perhaps pull lots of good stuff out with it. If you stir, your sand will stay fresher but there may be a lot of detritus mixed in.

Post your preferred method and share your reasoning with the community! :)

Sand sifting sea star and nasarius snails.

 

[Daniel@R2R Verified Admin]

A similar process works for me. I clamp a Maxjet 1200 to the glass at each WC and blast ALL of the sand first with an attached silicone hose. This breaks off half a dozen or so acro frags to be collected after. It gets so cloudy in there it is hard to see. I then remove 35 cloudy gallons from the display straight to my septic waste line.

Once I refill, I use the same hose/pump to blast all rock and sticks and let the socks capture the rest.

It works for my DT because I have always done this. Also, my base rock "floats" on the sand bed via 1/2 inch acrylic rods so nothing can fall over.

There are no hidden time bombs in my sand bed. And while my SPS slime up a little each time, they are healthy and growing.

Beautiful tank!!