Do I still need to sand vacuum with a conch?

[Ocean’s Piece]

Do I need to vacuum my sandbed during water changes if I have a conch?

 

[Ocean’s Piece]

Bumping because I noticed the servers went down

 

[Ocean’s Piece]

Bump

 

[emilybell1]

It seems like you’ll find a ton of people who swear by vacuuming their sand and a ton who swear by not vacuuming their sand. I’d be careful cleaning the sand bed too much because you could starve the conch. I don’t vacuum mine, I have 3 conchs and a diamond goby. They keep the sand super clean and I don’t want to mess with their food.

 

[Alaeriel]

Entirely depends on how much detritus is left. If your conch(es) can handle it, no need to vacuum. If you're finding its looking a bit shabby, might be time for the vac.

 

[Ocean’s Piece]

It seems like you’ll find a ton of people who swear by vacuuming their sand and a ton who swear by not vacuuming their sand. I’d be careful cleaning the sand bed too much because you could starve the conch. I don’t vacuum mine, I have 3 conchs and a diamond goby. They keep the sand super clean and I don’t want to mess with their food.

Yeah before I got the conch, I was an advocate for sand vacuuming. Now, the conch has eliminated all the cyano that existed on the sandbed and I haven’t stirred the sandbed since adding it. I’ll probably leave it untouched for the conch van still get the detritus.

 

[SPR1968]

Ive never vacuumed the sand in either of my systems, why would you its all part of the ecosystem

Just keep it clean and white with critters such as a sand sifting starfish once the system is mature and can provide enough food

 

[Glenner’sreef]

Good day, I’m one who swears by it. Lol. I have 2 conchs and I vacuum “every” time I do water changes. Once a month in 180g.
I base my doing this on science if you will. I help service 100s of tanks ( I’m retired) and both test and vacuum every tank. Going on 19 months now. Overall fish deaths are down due to more pristine conditions. 1-3 conchs should be fine in an average tank. Just like Turbo snails. Buy 15 to take care of an algae problem then sell back 10 to the lfs once all of their food is gone. But have the best of both worlds. A clean healthier tank and a conch you like. Good luck.

 

[ying yang]

Do I need to vacuum my sandbed during water changes if I have a conch?

Good question and has lots answers i believe.
But what ive found from research of others is if vacuum sand bed then stick to that regiment and if dont vacuum then stick to not vacuuming and if choose not to vacuum sand bed for me i try to add critters that will keep turning/cleaning sand for me like i have a pistol shrimp ( his side of tank nearly colour of sand when new ) and i got 2 conch and some nassariuous snails and even a silver belly wrasse who's party trick is dive bombing the sand bed and coming straight back up and him and his fishy friends then pick off any pods /worms that fly into the water ( he very popular and his fishy friends always give him a round off applause ha ha )
Another suggestion ive read is gently run your fingers through the sand bed also if needed ( but watch out for bristle worms i guess)

Edit: i possibly may want to add a sand sifting goby or even starfish once my sandbed matures enough for them so hopefully im keeping the sandbed naturally aerated with snails/pistol/wrasse and letting it mature without letting it get filthy,
Ps: note to self i need add few more nassarious snails and trochous juat because time to add ^_^

 

[Ocean’s Piece]

Good question and has lots answers i believe.
But what ive found from research of others is if vacuum sand bed then stick to that regiment and if dont vacuum then stick to not vacuuming and if choose not to vacuum sand bed for me i try to add critters that will keep turning/cleaning sand for me like i have a pistol shrimp ( his side of tank nearly colour of sand when new ) and i got 2 conch and some nassariuous snails and even a silver belly wrasse who's party trick is dive bombing the sand bed and coming straight back up and him and his fishy friends then pick off any pods /worms that fly into the water ( he very popular and his fishy friends always give him a round off applause ha ha )
Another suggestion ive read is gently run your fingers through the sand bed also if needed ( but watch out for bristle worms i guess)

Edit: i possibly may want to add a sand sifting goby or even starfish once my sandbed matures enough for them so hopefully im keeping the sandbed naturally aerated with snails/pistol/wrasse and letting it mature without letting it get filthy,
Ps: note to self i need add few more nassarious snails and trochous juat because time to add ^_^

Yeah that’s the rule of thumb I have heard and I have heard less problems coming from the stirring method so I have been doing that