How often do you vacuum your Aragonite

[CindyKz]

I used to vaccum but now I have too many LPS sitting on the sand. I siphon out the cyano (almost gone!) then fluff all over with a turkey baster with my weekly water change.

 

[Tuan’s Reef]

I give my sand bed (fine grain oolite at 1/2 inch deep) a siphon every other WC . I wc weekly.

Guys at WWC says they don’t . Peeps at top shelf aquatics told me the same.

In the forums you get mixed answers with both giving pretty good evidence to prove their case.

So....I do it every other time ? lol

 

[MnFish1]

Never. Some areas are as hard as concrete now.

Just a comment this should not happen if you’re being serious. Do you think you have some precipitation going on

 

[MnFish1]

Nothing in the ocean sits around and collects debris. Turkey baste the sand and blow under rocks once a week with next day turkey baste all the rocks. Goes into mesh socks and rinses out in five minutes. Keeps nitrates 10 to 20 and no algae issues and nobody knocking my substrate sitting corals around. Need to turkey baste Zoa colonies. They collect stuff between the polyps. Turn the power heads up to 100 for half hour a day. That also lifts debris out of the holes.

What if you have pumps providing high flow. Imho the flow In The ocean is far less than in our tanks

 

[leepink23]

I usually vacuum mine with water exchanges every 2 weeks.

 

[Scorpius]

I recently started vacuuming my sand again. Got lazy and life got busy. Man that sand holds a lot of gunk.

 

[Righteous]

I voted never, but my Diamond Watchman Goby keeps it well sifted.

 

[JMetaxas]

Get a Diamond Goby. They keep the top 1/2" turnover regularly. I also have Nassarius Snails, which borrow deeper keeping things moving.

 

[McPikie]

I whole heartedly condone the use of a goby. They do an excellent job of keeping my reeflowers pearl white sand in tip top condition.

 

[Oldsalt]

I use this in my 3-5” sand bed about 2-4 times per year. I only do about 1/4 to 1/3 of the bed per week when I’m at it. Great for finding those “abandoned” snail homes.

Hey how long is the arm on this? My tank is 36" deep, water level at 32" (to prevent overflow if my redundancy overflow(s) fail). It's a b**ch getting my arm down deep without bruising my armpits on the braces - let alone worrying about taking action to prevent antiperspirant leeching in.

 

[Oldsalt]

I used to vacuum religiously (when the 340 gallon was new and had diatoms) but I leave it alone now that the 'tom's are gone. I now let the nassarius snails and bristleworms emerge when they smell food. Also have a "loaned" sand sifter star who keeps the place pretty tidy. When/if he becomes a problem I'll return him to the LFS. However, I do use the turkey baster to blow out excess detritus under, around and in rocks before regular water change and sock and sump filter change.

 

[MaiReef]

I do not vacuum, but I do mix it up.

 

[PhreeByrd]

I don't bother the sand. Never have, never will. Some critters do mix it up a little bit, but NO3 stays stable at 10 ppm and PO4 at 0.1 ppm. Been that way for more than 20 years. I see no reason to bother it.

 

[Jase4224]

All my previous tanks have built up detritus in my sand bed especially around and under the rocks. This has always caused hair algae problems for me. Others have pointed out that in the ocean the sand is turned over by animals and this is true. To my mind mixing the sand is more natural than just letting it sit and accumulate unnatural amounts of nutrients. This can be done by hand or using livestock. We must also consider that our tanks can’t achieve the water turnover that the ocean can so keeping detritus levels within reason is good practice.

In my new tank I’ll be testing a new method. I have a shallow sand bed around 1 - 1.5 inches and my rocks are placed on styrofoam so that detritus can easily be blown out from under the rocks and I have easy access to all the sand to keep it clean. I still need to add a bag of Aragalive to get my desired depth.

 

[MaiReef]

All my previous tanks have built up detritus in my sand bed especially around and under the rocks. This has always caused hair algae problems for me. Others have pointed out that in the ocean the sand is turned over by animals and this is true. To my mind mixing the sand is more natural than just letting it sit and accumulate unnatural amounts of nutrients. This can be done by hand or using livestock. We must also consider that our tanks can’t achieve the water turnover that the ocean can so keeping detritus levels within reason is good practice.

In my new tank I’ll be testing a new method. I have a shallow sand bed around 1 - 1.5 inches and my rocks are placed on styrofoam so that detritus can easily be blown out from under the rocks and I have easy access to all the sand to keep it clean. I still need to add a bag of Aragalive to get my desired depth.

Styrofoam does leak an chemicals?

 

[Jase4224]

Styrofoam does leak an chemicals?

It’s made for reptile terrariums and is advertised as non toxic. Styrofoam is inert as far as I know.

 

[pijao81]

I just use long turkey baster and stir up the sand bed a bit once every week or two, the gunk goes down the overflow and gets trapped in the polyester batting filled DIY catch all I made, in the sump, and then toss the batting

Could you share a picture of your DIY?

 

[Marie7]

My tank does a lot better when I don’t do it at all then when I do it once a week or once every other week. Yours?

I do monthly while I do the water change

 

[Reef Box]

I never vacuumed my sand. Sometimes, I'd take a piece of egg crate which was fashioned into a rake and use it to turn the sand.

But I recently I had an aggressive Cyano outbreak on my sand only. @Brew12 pointed out that I should be vacuuming my sand as the Cyano was probably feeding off whatever was locked up in the sand.

BINGO! Problem solved in two weeks (and two water changes via vacuuming).

Now that the "poisons" are out of my substrate, I will rake my substrate regularly to keep it from building up again.

I had this exact issue. I fought it for months including a couple chemical-clean treatments and sucking up only the cyano I could see. Started vacuuming once or twice a month with water changes and I haven't seen it since. IMO it does do something. Running a heavy SPS tank and my corals haven't looked better

 

[SashimiTurtle]

Keep a bunch of sand dwelling wrasse and they will stir your sand for you... all over your corals.