Sand bed - To vacuum or not?

[MarsRover]

DSB here. 5+ inches. Coming from a shallow sand bed tank, which I never vacuum’d either, I’d say just leave well enough alone. If you have proper clean up crew, and good flow throughout your tank, and you aren’t Dumping buckets of food in at a time, you likely won’t need to vacuum. If you get an island of detritus, vacuum the junk off the surface layer and then fix your tank flow.

 

[Blz14me1]

I used to vacuum sand every water change but I got a diamond goby and tbh I love him. He keeps the sand bed clean as can be. He’s reef safe and never bothers anything except for the crab shells he likes to put them in 1 corner. So now I have a shell graveyard.

 

[MarsRover]

I used to vacuum sand every water change but I got a diamond goby and tbh I love him. He keeps the sand bed clean as can be. He’s reef safe and never bothers anything except for the crab shells he likes to put them in 1 corner. So now I have a shell graveyard.

Those diamond gobys require fine sand yes? See, i'd love to get an animal that can keep my sand bed **surface** clean (i have a deep sand bed) but i'm still trying to find the right animal for my situation ;Chicken

 

[Wicky48]

I've never vacuumed my sand however will stir up the sand then immediately do a water change. I do this once a month. Seems to work good for me but I don't have much of a problem anyway with a Diamond Goby in the tank, he does a pretty good job everyday of stirring things up.

 

[saltyhog]

I vacuum my sand bed every water change (1-3"). It's just part of my water change and keeps the sand pristine. I don't have any sand sifters and my 4 conchs have been with me for over 4 years so I don't think I'm eliminating all the food they glean from the sand. My wrasses all follow me around if I stir the sand as they get the opportunity to pick up displaced pods and other critters.

I do feed pretty heavy and there is a pretty nasty layer on the bottom of the water change Brute every time.

 

[richiero]

I vacuum my 1 1/2 deep sand bed no ill effects so far it’s been 7 yrs .... but every system is different

 

[becca10]

I have a 125 with the black sand. It’s a fairly new tank, but the shop that set it up didn’t clean off the live rock. I had huge amounts of die off with the cycling and have been doing water changes weekly and vacuum half the sand bed at a time. Was having nitrate issues. Seems to be back in order and I just got a golden head give to help with sand turn over.

 

[norfolkgarden]

We had a 6" DSB sugar sandbed for 4 years.

Currently bare bottom.

I was new to salt water and in spite of a lot of reading totally clueless.

The DSB can act like a kitchen sponge. Doing an amazing job of absorbing the bad stuff.

I kept sps, lps and a ridiculous fish load.
The "kitchen sponge" absorbed all my horrible mistakes.

Until the "kitchen sponge" gets saturated.
And then it's similar to dragging the sopping wet sponge from the spill on the kitchen table back to the sink.

Then you are done and your tank dies.

You would not believe the amount of filth that can fit between those almost microscopic sand grains.

I wish I did a video taking the sand and filth out of the 75 gallon tank.

I would recommend that you go slow and clean 1/6th or less at a time and clean that 1/6th thoroughly.

Then a few weeks later do the next section.

If I had done this properly I have been told the 6" DSB would have lasted at least a decade.

Year 3

Then the end of year 4 before the complete redo.

 

[CoralGuy19]

I would keep the sand bed, I was thinking about getting rid of mine because I was having trouble keeping it clean, but I got a diamond goby and that solved my issue. I have fairly corse sand and it doesn’t seem to mind at all

 

[Mackenzieee]

I was thinkin mabey it decompses all the way after a while and taken out with water changes if you do t vacum. But I'll just vacume a clouple times a month. I noticed my little clown fish didnt like when I sturred the sand bed in a ten gallon. Looked unhealthy I don't stir anymore at all