Stirring sand bed or not??

[jkeck28]

I have read both ways on whether it's good to stir the sand bed while doing water changes or not. I had a Biocube with crushed coral and each water change I vacuumed through the CC. I now have a newly set up 90 gallon with live sand as a base and was looking for advice on whether to do the same or let it be. The tanks is 8 weeks old. Thanks for any and all advice.

 

[J Rog]

I have read that if you are running a deep sand bed you don't want to mess with it but if its under 3 inchs it not a big deal to clean it. I run a shallow sand bed and i try to clean it here and there.

 

[Reefing Madness]

If its Live Sand, and its a fine sand that doesn't let anything settle under it, your ok by just blowing it off, or having a high flow to keep debre off of it and suspended for your skimmer and sump to get.

 

[ScottyMcReefer]

as long as it is thin (as posted above) you shouldn't have to worry. If it is deep than watch out! you don't wanna hit an ammonia pocket and absolutely mess up the tank .

 

[808jaymakoa]

I have a 2" sand bed. Extremely fine live sand and rake it with a plastic fork every 3-4 days. I can't vacuum it out because it's so fine. Keeps it nice and clean and let's tons of debris get suspended to get filtered out. My theory is if I keep it up I'll never let enough debris and dietrus to ever cause a tank crashing ammonia spike. I also blow off all my rock and rake all the debris to one area and then pick it all up with the turkey baster so I don't get any sand. We'll very little sand I should say.