How often do you vacuum your sandbed and how old is your aquarium.

fishybizzness

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Simply put, how often are you vacuuming your sandbed and how old is your aquarium. What are your reasons for your method. Tank photos would be awesome!
 

Ef4life

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I typically do small water changes every 2-3 weeks and I always vacuum the sandbed when doing it. 2 tanks are 8 and 7 years old now. There have been times I stopped cleaning the sand for short periods (few months) but I always go back to it sooner or later. It really gets some crud out.

Here’s yesterday’s first 5g - it’s usually not that dirty, but it’s been around 6 weeks between water changes since I ran out of salt and had to switch brands since I couldn’t get more tm pro.
 

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Timfish

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Varies, with my system started in 1997 I've gon years without touching the sand. With getting some lysol over spray last year and a power outage (thankfully very short) withteh freeze last month I've been doing something probably 3 weeks out of 4.
 
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fishybizzness

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Thanks for the great responses! I currently vacuum every week or 2 with my water changes and stir up the sand in between but I've been dealing with a cyanobacteria on the sandbed issue and I'm wondering if the frequent sand vacuuming is not helpful. I'm just trying to figure out a method to stability. That and the fact that It's one of my least liked chores. Lol
 

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ScottB

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I vacuumed religiously for a few years until I got a larger tank. Now most of my base rock is on 1.5" pylons and instead of vacuuming, I just clamp a pump inside and blast it all with a silicone hose until I can't see anything in the tank. Then I flip a few valves and my return pump removes water to my waste line. No more buckets, no more vacuuming. About 6 years this way now.

If it is still cloudy after new water is pumped in, I will dump some CaCO3 solution in to clean up the water. Remove socks after that.
51580.jpg
 
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fishybizzness

fishybizzness

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I vacuumed religiously for a few years until I got a larger tank. Now most of my base rock is on 1.5" pylons and instead of vacuuming, I just clamp a pump inside and blast it all with a silicone hose until I can't see anything in the tank. Then I flip a few valves and my return pump removes water to my waste line. No more buckets, no more vacuuming. About 6 years this way now.

If it is still cloudy after new water is pumped in, I will dump some CaCO3 solution in to clean up the water. Remove socks after that.
51580.jpg
How often do you do that deep cleaning?
 

PR_nano

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During every water change. Tank is close to 1.5 year old. Doing them biweekly due to dino. You can see the dino getting back together in the no flow bucket.
 

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ScottB

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How often do you do that deep cleaning?
I do it each WC so every other week. I blow off the rock first, then get to the sand. I might get 1/3 to 1/2 the sand blown before I lose visibility and have to stop. Otherwise I find broken acro sticks all over the place.

I am not dogmatic about it, just practical. I would NEVER ADVISE this to a reefer who has not previously been managing their sand bed. Vacuuming would be safer.

Some folks say their coral like all that detritus stirred up into the water column. Mine just slime up pretty heavy so not sure they really like it that much. Some folks say this is mandatory for avoiding "old tank syndrome" and I feel there is a kernel of truth in this belief. For me, it is just another lever I pull for exporting the amount chum I dump into the tank three times (or more) a day.
 

Azedenkae

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I never vacuum my tank, it is three months old.

I run a high nutrient tank and let the algae grow as a natural method for nutrient sequestration, which I then manually export by... manually pulling everything out.

I stir the sand bed every few days, just to keep it as white as possible. So I don't really need to vacuum it.
 

uhgster1

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This tank is 3 years old. I vacuumed every water change 3x a month in the beginning. After the first year of battling cyano I quit and started to stir it instead. I haven’t touched my sand for the last six months.
image.jpg

I believe that once your tank reaches an equilibrium of biological diversity (bacterial), it starts to take care of balancing nutrients itself. Once in a blue moon I’ll point a baster at the sand but that’s it. The more I vacuumed or messed with the sand the more frustrating it got with the cyano. You have to be patient and let your bio levels grow. If you have a sump draw water from there for your water changes or just don’t mess with the sand next time. It’s part of the ugly stage.
 
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fishybizzness

fishybizzness

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I plan to try to not touch the sandbed for a month or so to see what happens. I will still be cleaning my glass and doing my weekly water changes to see if things stabilze.
 

Paul B

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I don't use sand, I have gravel and I stir it up usually twice a year with a diatom filter. I do that because I run a reverse undergravel filter and I don't want it to clog.
Tank is running fifty years.

 
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