Should I vacuum sand with each water change??

[vareefer1979]

Should I vacuum sand with each water change??

 

[Tahoe61]

I don't. If I do in an established tank then I do so in sections at a time, never the whole sandbed.

 

[CoralB]

Yes !! If you don't like doing it all at once just make the tank into four sections and then just do one section each time . But yes it I would .

 

[exnisstech]

Most of what I've heard/read says always or never. I'm in the never camp.

 

[Idech]

I would do it 2-3 times a year, not every time.

 

[Patx]

How deep it is ?
I got barely 1inch... i do 100% vacuum or sand storm when i feel for.
Around 1x a month.

Deeper 2-3+ inch, i will be more cautious.

 

[CHSUB]

I stir the sand with a fork tied to the end of my siphon hose. I do this with my weekly WC, nearly the entire sand bed, however I don’t go very deep, just the top inch or so.

 

[edsbeaker]

I do AWC so I never have, but I think I’m going to start. The last few times a used my algae scrapper at the sand line it produced tons of dust.

 

[Freenow54]

With my freshwater tank I vacuumed every week. When I had to shut down the tank the filth still in the sand was sick. So I never did it with salt water where much more is going on, Because I am affeeered to do it

 

[LiquidSpace]

I never do it because I am never able to clean it without sucking a ton out.

 

[Freenow54]

I never do it because I am never able to clean it without sucking a ton out.

I had to pull that fine stuff out and put in a more corse sand for my Diamond Goby plus it stays cleaner ? I cant figure that out. Still don't clean it every week

 

[Tamberav]

Well Paul has a tank 50 years or something now and he stirs everything up and uses a diatom filter to then clean out the debris from the water from time to time.

So I am voting yes until someone comes along and tells me they have a 50 year old tank where they never touched the sand.

I am in the process of building a DIY diatom filter as Paul has a post somewhere on here of how to build one. It seems easier to use that on larger tanks than trying to vac the sand bed.

 

[Freenow54]

Well Paul has a tank 50 years or something now and he stirs everything up and uses a diatom filter to then clean out the debris from the water from time to time.

So I am voting yes until someone comes along and tells me they have a 50 year old tank where they never touched the sand.

Mine is at least 25. But unfortunately will never catch up to Paul. Paul does a lot of things others don't not a slur just a fact. That may contribute to the whole condition of his tank/ tanks

 

[VintageReefer]

I do not clean the sandbed on any tank
Current tank sandbed is 11+ years

 

[Tamberav]

also there are some critters that help the sand bed, spaghetti worms for example, I’m sure a healthy pod population helps.

I had a large population of such things, then I bought a larger tank and decided I liked butterflies and sand sleeping wrasses. They ate every single worm, feather duster, and never seen a pod in the DT. Only the sump.

Losing that fauna likely has a negative impact on the health of a sand bed meaning it requires more upkeep by me.

Siphoning the sand bed lowers the numbers of fish parasites and can be helpful in a disease management type tank.


Things to think about. What does YOUR tank need? Not necessarily the same thing as the next persons.

 

[Bob Weigant]

I do but its a little at a time

 

[mjszos]

I have fish that make piles of sand, so I get in there with a rake and smooth it out pretty frequently… which leads to it getting stirred up.

But I don’t vacuum it. I let my filters handle the removal of the stirred up gunk.

 

[Dburr1014]

So much crap gets trapped in sand.
I have an AWC so I don't vacuum and I didn't vote.
I will once a month I take my turkey baster and blow out to the bottom of the sand with water and a lot of detritus comes up and gets captured in socks. Then I remove the sock.

 

[Freenow54]

I have fish that make piles of sand, so I get in there with a rake and smooth it out pretty frequently… which leads to it getting stirred up.

But I don’t vacuum it. I let my filters handle the removal of the stirred up gunk.

added a Marineland Polishing Filter after watching a video by Rich Ross, and did what you did. Works great but Media Micron filters not cheap I change 4 weeks apart. When my finances clear up going to build Paul Bs filter

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

I never cleaned my fine oolitic aragonite sand.