Do you vaccuum your sand / substate ?

I used to vacume my sandbed, but now my pistol shrimp keeps it so stirred up I do not have to.

I think if you are going to vacume it, it is better to do so routinely. I have seen bad outcomes in some tanks when the sandbed was disturbed after sitting undisturbed for months.

 

If its a functioning Deep Sand Bed no. If its a shallow or decorative sand bed then yes you can.

The exception is with a DSB you can vacuum the top 1/4" or so but only in small sections at a time over a period of days so you do not disturb the anaerobic and anoxic bacterias down deep.

 

I have 2 inches of live sand and vac once a month. My clean up crew up to this point is only assorted snails and an emerald crab (that I haven't seen in over a week). I'm not sure if I should get any more CUC members as I don't want to overdo it--if I do it will probably be a couple more crabs and a shrimp.

 

I dont understand this really. With my fine grain sand, shallow sand bed, if I vaccum it will get sucked out along with the water. In addition I will suck out many of my cerith snails. How do you all go about this?

 

Thats why it never really crossed my mind to do it, it seemed like you would be doing more harm to the tank then it would help, and with a strong CUC My sand remains clean. plus how do you go around the rocks and such? with my clumsy self id probably create a rock avalanche