Question About Vacuuming Sand Bed

Marco S · Jun 18, 2019

When I first put in my live sand I did not rinse it like I have read some people do on here. There was a significant amount of dust that clouded up the tank for a couple of days and clouds it up whenever I disturb the sand. I have been using a tank vac to sift through the sand a couple times a month, but the dust that gets created stays in the tank and I just filter out the fish poop and other detritus in the sand.

I did my first large water change yesterday and decided to vacuum the sand and a lot of the cloudy stuff came along with the detritus. I was just wondering if that cloudy stuff is actually good and I should keep it in the tank or is it OK to remove it whenever I do a water change? This may be a stupid question, but I just wanted to make sure I am not getting rid of anything good, (since it came with the sand in the first place) by removing it.

reacclimating 2 the hobby · Jun 18, 2019

You are ok to remove it. When most are rinsing the sand prior to use they are doing just that.

BestMomEver · Jun 18, 2019

It’s ok as long as you and your inhabitants can tolerate it. If it’s a really serious sand cloud I would be wary. That’s one reason I don’t do gravel washes. I also believe that a lot of good stuff lives in my sand bed that I prefer not to suck out. I have had tanks for a long time and never do gravel washes.

AquaFlow · Jun 18, 2019

I just replaced my substrate with live sand on Sunday and was told not to rinse it since that would get rid of the bacteria, etc.

Nicholas Scelzi · Jun 18, 2019

when you use the vaccuum to do a water change... what your kicking up creating the cloudy look is actually some of the sand itself (this is nothing to worry about and a little cloudiness after a water change is perfectly normal and the sand will settle usually in a few hours / a day)

Salty Lemon · Jun 18, 2019

Live sand generally says not to rinse it. So long as you don't have a star fish or anything that eats the stuff in the sand, you shouldn't have a problem with sucking it out with water changes. I'm not certain how long your tank has been set up, but I wouldn't suck anything up until it is completely cycled.

mta_morrow · Jun 18, 2019

AquaFlow said:
I just replaced my substrate with live sand on Sunday and was told not to rinse it since that would get rid of the bacteria, etc.

For future reference, the vast majority of our bacteria is in the rocks.

Rinsing sand will have little to no impact on bacteria population.

Also bacteria reproduces fast. Any depletion will be quickly repopulated.

Marco S · Jun 18, 2019

Salty Lemon said:
Live sand generally says not to rinse it. So long as you don't have a star fish or anything that eats the stuff in the sand, you shouldn't have a problem with sucking it out with water changes. I'm not certain how long your tank has been set up, but I wouldn't suck anything up until it is completely cycled.

It has been up and running for about three months now. Cycle completed a while ago.

Edit: Just wanted to add that I have been doing smaller water changes off and on, but this was the first big one, (about 25%).

Marco S · Jun 18, 2019

BestMomEver said:
It’s ok as long as you and your inhabitants can tolerate it. If it’s a really serious sand cloud I would be wary. That’s one reason I don’t do gravel washes. I also believe that a lot of good stuff lives in my sand bed that I prefer not to suck out. I have had tanks for a long time and never do gravel washes.

The "good stuff" is what I am worried about getting rid of. I have planted tanks and never vacuum because the substrate contains "good stuff" for the plants.

The problem I have is that I can not have a traditional CUC since I have a Harlequin Tusk so I need to clean the sand myself. I just don't want to be getting rid of anything beneficial to the tank.

BestMomEver · Jun 18, 2019

Marco S said:
The "good stuff" is what I am worried about getting rid of. I have planted tanks and never vacuum because the substrate contains "good stuff" for the plants.

The problem I have is that I can not have a traditional CUC since I have a Harlequin Tusk so I need to clean the sand myself. I just don't want to be getting rid of anything beneficial to the tank.

Wow.... then you’re stuck. That’s the reason I don’t have a tusk! Do they eat snails too? I thought just hermits.

Marco S · Jun 18, 2019

BestMomEver said:
Wow.... then you’re stuck. That’s the reason I don’t have a tusk! Do they eat snails too? I thought just hermits.

He hasn't touched any of my large Turbo Snails yet, but they seem to be pretty useless for the sand bed. They hang out on the glass and rock mostly. I did get a couple of Conchs, but they will be in QT for a couple months so they wont be any help for now.

BestMomEver · Jun 18, 2019

Try nessarius too. They are great in the sand bed.

BeejReef · Jun 18, 2019

YES.. a sandbed thread (getting popcorn)

Marco S · Jun 18, 2019

BestMomEver said:
Try nessarius too. They are great in the sand bed.

Yeah, I was looking for some, but I cannot find any local shops that have any and when I've looked online they have been sold out. I will check again later today though.

On a side note: the Tusk is absolutely worth the hassle of having to find alternative ways to manage clean up without crabs and shrimp. He is quickly becoming my favorite fish.

Marco S · Jun 18, 2019

William DeCoursey said:
YES.. a sandbed thread (getting popcorn)

Lol!

mta_morrow · Jun 18, 2019

Hang on.......Here it comes........

count krunk · Jun 18, 2019

sandbeds are the best and vacuuming them is just plain silly!

If you want a sandbed then get the stuff that vacuums or stirs it up for you. There is a massive thread on here about removing and rinsing sandbed. I am sure we will see it's owner here soon

any tank 40g or bigger has to have some sort of creature, fish or shrimp or combo, that moves sand around. It is a must to have nass snails for the same reason.

brandon429 · Jun 18, 2019

the stuff you are removing is the feed for some of the worst tank invasions we have currently running.

its neutral now, though.

Removing it wont be harmful, leaving it in could be, depending on sourcing of frags animals etc.

Your tank can endure power outages much better with a clean sandbed vs a dirty one, for sure. wastewater plants use a certain measure of that ability called BOD rating to control how fast production works within the feed plant...handy stuff to know about excessive aerobic bac. too much of them saps your free oxygen in the system at critical times

its not harmful initially to keep, there are thousands of dirty systems out there running fine coral. just don't touch, move, relocate, upgrade or downgrade without knowing how to implement skip cycle surgery

and don't have rock stacks fall over once the system gets old and packed with coral.

Few systems age far enough for the detritus loading to really add up to problems, they're usually moved or taken down before they hit years old with same fish loading/feed/waste all in place. Its easy to recommend full hands off mode for young tanks, but for tanks that need extra careful planning or are aged/old we have really safe ways of keeping them alive forever solely by keeping things clean and not full of waste.

I myself once kept a deep sand bed uncleaned for nine years documented on threads, it only got cruddy toward the end and I cleaned/replaced it all. It was a liability that time if the rocks fell or it got mixed up somehow during cleaning, but I was running it a long time on purpose to see what happened.

now its just deep cleaned occasionally, runs safer and better that way. I did have a power outage recently and appreciated that extra hedge.

https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/t...ead-aka-one-against-many.230281/#post-2681445

mta_morrow · Jun 18, 2019

mta_morrow said:
Hang on.......Here it comes........

GoVols · Jun 18, 2019

Marco S said:
When I first put in my live sand I did not rinse it like I have read some people do on here. There was a significant amount of dust that clouded up the tank for a couple of days and clouds it up whenever I disturb the sand. I have been using a tank vac to sift through the sand a couple times a month, but the dust that gets created stays in the tank and I just filter out the fish poop and other detritus in the sand.

I did my first large water change yesterday and decided to vacuum the sand and a lot of the cloudy stuff came along with the detritus. I was just wondering if that cloudy stuff is actually good and I should keep it in the tank or is it OK to remove it whenever I do a water change? This may be a stupid question, but I just wanted to make sure I am not getting rid of anything good, (since it came with the sand in the first place) by removing it.

Can you get a Diamond Goby?
Your tank will look like a sandstorm...

for awhile, but the silt will free up and get out, with one of those.

The Python No Spill will do the job too.
https://www.bulkreefsupply.com/python-no-spill-water-change-system.html
https://www.bulkreefsupply.com/no-spill-clean-fill-replacement-gravel-tubes-python.html