How often do you guys clean your sandbed?

[Koty]

I have never cleaned the sand since I got a sand-sifting Gobby. He does it every second he is awake, including moving sand from place to place, and best of all, he piles up the fallen pieces of mussel.
Also, I got 4 wrasses (Melanorus, YelowtailT, canary, and leopard) that sleep inside and occasionally dig in during the day chasing who knows what

 

[Subliminal]

I haven't ever cleaned mine, either. Good flow and a good CUC have kept it pretty legit.

 

[EnemyAnenome]

I have never cleaned the sand since I got a sand-sifting Gobby. He does it every second he is awake, including moving sand from place to place, and best of all, he piles up the fallen pieces of mussel.
Also, I got 4 wrasses (Melanorus, YelowtailT, canary, and leopard) that sleep inside and occasionally dig in during the day chasing who knows what

Thanks for the info, I'll look into the sand sifting goby

 

[Koty]

My DT is 120 x 50 cm and is about 2.4 years old with a refuge. My Gobby has been in my tank for about a year and he grew from 2.5 cm to full size. He sprays and covers the corals/zoas with sand as he constantly redecorates. But IMO its not a problem as some folks in the forum claim.

 

[jenniferreichardt]

I’m not sure if this is a genius idea but I dose a few ml of M7 daily in my 3rd tank. It’s 125 gallons. Full of fish and fed heavy. The sand is so pretty and white. No siphoning ever. Very small cuc. Thinking about starting it in my 180 to see.

 

[7thpagano]

I have a beautiful 280 reef tank and I don’t clean the sand and I don’t do water changes. I change all filters once a week and check my parameters . I used a sump with micro algae.

 

[sawdonkey]

I use a course substrate rather than sand, and I vacuum it thoroughly every time I do a water change. Every other time or so, I use a power head with a six inch hose to blow out under my rockscape. Even between water changes, I sometimes vacuum the gravel into a filter sock in my sump.

I have 75 or so crabs, 25 or so asterea snails, 25 or so nasarus snails, 4-6 huge Mexican turbo nails, two conchs, 200+ mini cerith snails, 5-6 bumble bee snails. This crew by no means keeps my 240 gallon sandbed clean.

Even with my frequent manual cleaning, my sandbed is full of life. Check this vid of the swarms of misid shrimp and pods from last night. Every crevice looks like this after lights out.