To Vacuum or not to vacuum-Sand-3reef Forums

Glipzcom · 01-16-2008, 04:59 PM

So I need to do my water change. Which is always more of a pain in the ass than i think it should be. But one thing i have been wondering is.

Should I siphon my sand?

I usualy do, i have about 2-3 inches of sand at the bottom. and if i take water out using the gravel cleaner thingie i get lots of nasty looking water, so that seems good. But I also wonder am i screwing up biological activity? Currently I really dont have anything that stirs up my sand bed. Other than my crazy powerheads which just love to dig holes in the sand.

So should i keep vacuuming during water changes? or should I start leaving it alone.

ziggy222 · 01-16-2008, 05:31 PM

theres alot of bad stuff in the surface water that you don't see.i like to take the surface water but once in a while i use a turkey baster to blow all the sediment off the bottom and it gets sucked up in the filter.

wastemanagement · 01-16-2008, 06:13 PM

I syphon just were the drbris collects in my tank ontop of the sand not all of the sand bed

lunatik_69 · 01-16-2008, 06:17 PM

Funny you should ask. To be REALLY honest, I dont even know. Some say that you should do it b/c your cleaning the sand of all that sludge. Others say you shouldnt b/c of the benefical bac. So what I do is every once in a while I clean the sand.

reef_guru · 01-16-2008, 11:22 PM

sand bottom tanks have 7 layers of bacteria that play an important role. disrupting them will cause havoc. each of them has a purpose. it doesnt matter if its dsb or 1 lbs per gallon. if your going to stir the sand to disrupt the reason its there in the first place, be prepared to add more sand later on, take the risk of wiping out your tank, and doing it on a regular basis i.e. daily or weekly to keep it clean throughout all the time as to not let the bacteria grow. there have been tanks that have been up and running for over 10 years without disrupting the sand bed. a surface level clean up crew will handle the sediment aquired above the sand. sand sifting stars have been known to disrupt the tank bio by stirring the sand.

you have two choices leave it alone or constantly clean it.

Frizza · 01-17-2008, 04:41 AM

I'm with reef_guru on this. I have a deep sand bed and I dont do anything to it, my clean up crew keep the top layer clean so the sand is always white. As time goes on you can see the layers in the sand, it's actually pretty neat!
A word of caution though, my old tank had a sand bed of around 1.5inches, this is in the range of not really being a shallow or a deep sand bed and it basically turned into a nutrient sink after a year or so! Mind you I cleaned the sand every 3 to 4 weeks and obviously that wasn't enough.

coral reefer · 01-17-2008, 05:57 AM

Leave the sand alone and don't vacuum it or you rid your tank of many beneficial organisms as implied above! I never vacuum my sand. I have a Conch and a Sea Cucumber that I use to stir up and aerate the sand is all!

omard · 01-17-2008, 06:45 AM

Don't.

Just get more hermit crabs.

djnzlab1 · 01-17-2008, 09:57 AM

HI,
I use brisstle and other worms to keep my sand pristine, when you stir sand it can disrupt the bacteria, pods, critters and actually kill them, Hermits can kill snails I haven't seen a hermit do anything good in my tank, they chase fish when they sleep , there supposed to eat algae and deitris, not in my tanks they want food , flake, frozen , and live and kicking I ve bought my last hermit crab, If they kill another turbo snail they may wind up back at the lps.
you should'nt see any food or poo layind around in your tank if you do get some power heads and move that water around.
I belive that letting a dsb work and using a skimmer with some live rock is a complete circle of nitrogen, aerobic and anerobic.
Just watch your water quality, I only check calcium, KH , phos, MAg the big (4) Everything else is rather uneventful and rather boring if your seeing anything layin around on the sand you don't have enough water flow.
I have 5 inches of sand in the sump and 4 inches in the 55, and 3 inches in the 37 all share a sump/ reforguim skimmer.
If if the rocks look green I check phos,CA,MAg,KH
Its usally needs a dose of Kalkwauser and everythig settles back for another month or so.
DOug

Starfish eat pods bad for dsb's, hermits eat everything they can catch, snails are great turbo's eat algae, and their are the smaller deitris eating snails. Brisstle worms eat any deitris and dead food they find, if the reach a high number to quick your overfeeding. Many fish love brisstle worms as snacks.

Glipzcom · 01-17-2008, 11:31 AM

Wow thanks everyone. so I think the general consensus is that I should just leave it. Now I am not very dilligent about water changes, but when i was doing them about every 2 months i was siphoning the sand. so Should i get some fresh live sand again? to help new bacteria colonies grow?

As for stuff sitting on the sand. I find it very hard to find a place for the powerheads thats not so low that its digging holes in the sand, vs it being too high that it doesnt get that low lying water. Any tricks? should i just get heavier sand? Or like that garf Grunge stuff?