Vacuuming sand bed

[thh9227]

Should I be vacuuming my sand bed?

 

[littlefoxx]

Should I be vacuuming my sand bed?

I dont. I have sand sifting clean up crews for this, I thought I needed to as thats a must for freshwater or it gets nasty but my fish that dig and inverts that crawl around in the sand keep it clean!

 

[sheel be right]

when i used to have sand years ago all i did was take a turkey baster and blast the sand to turn it around every couple days, kept it nice and white.

however if you have left your sand untouched from day one, doing this can cause lots of detritus to be kicked around and may cause a spike in nitrate or phosphate.

 

[VintageReefer]

no just get a fighting conch and some nassarius snails

 

[thh9227]

I dont. I have sand sifting clean up crews for this, I thought I needed to as thats a must for freshwater or it gets nasty but my fish that dig and inverts that crawl around in the sand keep it clean!

What do you have for your sand sifting CUC?

 

[Reef.]

I do.

 

[Idech]

Either do it regularly (every 4-6 weeks) or don’t do it.

If you decide to start doing it after your tank has been set up for a while, procede with caution, in small batches at a time or else you will risk an ammonia spike that can kill your fish.

 

[Reefer Matt]

I recommend it. Also regularly blowing off the rockwork with a turkey baster. This keeps detritus at bay. CUC's are great, but they secrete detritus (poop) back into the sand and rock too.

 

[littlefoxx]

What do you have for your sand sifting CUC?

I have an engineer goby who turns the sand but Im getting a sea cucumber. I have a tiger conch and a horseshoe crab. I have eels and triggers so I have to be careful what sand sifters I get

 

[flashsmith]

I stir my sandbed every other day when I scrape the glass. Also baste the rocks and corals. Turn the flow way up to keep it suspended and into the socks it goes. You would have to have an army of snails of all different kinds to make any sort of noticeable difference. And you'll always be buying them to replace them as they die or get murdered. I don't believe in letting all that detritus build up in a sand bed by just leaving it alone.