Do you siphon your sand?

[AydenLincoln]

I personally used to but now I don’t! I have a good cuc who keeps the sand looking good and in the fowlr tank the wrasse takes care of it and the sand has always been sparkling in that tank. I’d love to hear your thoughts/opinions on this.

 

[rhitee93]

I have a young tank that's only been running for a couple of months. I'm starting to get some GHA growing on the sand, so yep, I vacuum it.

 

[CasperOe]

Mine has been running for about 16 months now. I clean the sand bit by bit- but I have no schedule as such. Since I sat up my auto water change I have been slacking somewhat

 

[Lavey29]

I don't, but I do turkey baste it weekly. I have to many corals on the bottom so no space to siphon. My sand has always been funky looking too but it's just loaded with bacteria for the tank biome.

 

[hiluxhobbit]

havent vacuumed at all. My village idiot of a diamond goby keeps it clean
why is he/ she the village idiot? Because it dumps sand all over the place and tried to kill itself twice when it got freaked out by my glass scraper

 

[Birdman Broham]

I personally used to but now I don’t! I have a good cuc who keeps the sand looking good and in the fowlr tank the wrasse takes care of it and the sand has always been sparkling in that tank. I’d love to hear your thoughts/opinions on this.

I do not. I did try before but the siphon I used was pulling sand out but my goby does a good job of keeping it clean.

 

[Dburr1014]

I turkey baste, not as often as I should be.

 

[steveschuerger]

I personally used to but now I don’t! I have a good cuc who keeps the sand looking good and in the fowlr tank the wrasse takes care of it and the sand has always been sparkling in that tank. I’d love to hear your thoughts/opinions on this.

Same. I have lots of Cerith/dwarf Cerith/nassarius snails plus a sea cucumber that seem to do a pretty decent job

 

[The_Paradox]

Same. I have lots of Cerith/dwarf Cerith/nassarius snails plus a sea cucumber that seem to do a pretty decent job

They keep it looking clean but if you vacuum it you will be surprised how much sludge comes out of the bottom. BTW: If vacuum is lifting sand just decrease the flow.

 

[BubblesandSqueak]

used to. since I got a jawfish, he puts the sand everywhere and I need to put it back from time to time. Also have 3 fighting conchs that do a good job. Planning to move them to the big tank when it's up and running.

 

[Paul B]

I don't siphon it but I stir it all up a couple of times a year using a diatom filter. I use dolomite gravel and a reverse undergravel filter so I need to make sure it doesn't clog.

 

[LBCBJ]

I have a 1” sandbed and vaccumed it for the first time after 30 days. I was surprised at the amount of detritus and I have a super light bioload. Just based on that alone I’ll plan to vacuum around half my bed every other water change as long as nitrates and phosphates are above 0.

 

[Gumbies R Us]

I have not vacuumed mine yet, but have considered doing it haha

 

[lil sumpin]

I got a little bit of an aversion to this because every time i poke or move something a bit, there's a little cloudiness that lifts up into the water column.. I made the noob mistake of not rinsing my sand prior to setting up my system. In its first 4-5 weeks, I was stirring up the bed daily with a baster to poke around at the sand and using seachem clarity while changing the floss out of my hob daily. Fast forward almost 8 weeks, still seeing the clouds but they're not too bad. Planning on starting vacuuming up section by section soon

 

[Reeferbadness]

havent vacuumed at all. My village idiot of a diamond goby keeps it clean
why is he/ she the village idiot? Because it dumps sand all over the place and tried to kill itself twice when it got freaked out by my glass scraper

mine tried to get into the siphon hose when i was doing a water change today - maybe related to your village idiot. He/she is a massive diamond goby, which is a good thing as he/she blocked the water flow enough for me to stop before he./she was sucked into the bucket.

 

[hexcolor reef]

I have gravel, which is a lot easier than sand. I take a large turkey blaster and blast into the gravel while siphoning water, all the uneaten food and what ever else comes right out and into the siphon easy

 

[CK Amstutz]

I siphon clean every month, every place I can reach. I do add a bag of live sand about once or twice a year. My tank has been running about ten years and is about 150 gallons. I always wonder if I am doing it right.

 

[TWYOUNG]

I used to skim out the top layer of sand with thick growths of dinos. I'd rinse it in tank water, filter the water through 5 micron socks and return the sand and water to the tank. Now that I appear to be thankfully past that I haven't decided for sure what is best for my tank. So far I'm relying on my Diamond Goby and two sand sifting starfish. It kinda bothers me that I'm letting my reef sand get dirty while I've always meticulously cleaned my FOWLR tank.

 

[Dbichler]

I clean it every waterchange which is about 3-4 months apart.

 

[RichReef]

It's 1 1/2 inches deep and I stir it every week. It can't be that bad considering all the corals extend when I do it.