To clean or not to clean...Substrate?

schooleyosis · Mar 27, 2013

What are your thoughts on vacuuming the substrate of your aquariums? Let the CC, sand sifting goby, sand sifting star do the work and never vacuum. Vacuum twice a year? Never vacuum? Vacuum at every water change?

GO!

solar · Mar 27, 2013

Let the cc do its job imho.

shellynjason · Mar 27, 2013

I like to stir up and vaccuum the sand in different areas at each weekly water change ... then again I have no gobies yet. Just bristleworms and hermits. My sand bed looks good.

mike007 · Mar 27, 2013

I vacumm every water change. Only a little bit off the top each time. I find that is where the bad stuff is and it keeps substrate looking good.

Reefing Madness · Mar 27, 2013

Let the CUC do its thing, blow off the substrate once a month to remove collected debre, let the Skimmer grab it.

bknapp · Mar 27, 2013

I blow off my rocks with a powerhead than I stir the sand once a month right before starting a water change.

schooleyosis · Mar 28, 2013

Thanks for the input all. Keep it coming!!!

TankedNTn · Mar 28, 2013

I blow off my rocks and then siphon about half my tank each water change. I get the other half the next water change.

coralreefing · Mar 28, 2013

Depends on the depth of your sand bed. IMO.

If you just have a thin layer, then a thorough vacuum will be good for detritus removal.
If you have a deep sand bed, only vacuum the top half inch.

schooleyosis · Mar 28, 2013

It's about 3 inches. The diamond goby keeps it well stirred. I'm thinking of adding a sand sifting star. If I do add the star I probably will not vacuum it.

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jmann124 · Mar 28, 2013

I've been considering a sand sifting star for my 75g but heard they can clean the sand bed out then starve easily. My SB is 1-3 inches throughout the tank. I've had my tank running for 7 months without ever vacuuming the SB. So, I'm not sure whether I should be concerned about starvation or not or whether the sand is even deep enough.

schooleyosis · Mar 28, 2013

Same thing I've been debating Joey! There are positives and negatives to everything in this hobby. LOL

coralreefing · Mar 28, 2013

I've never had a sand sifting star, but I've always heard they prey on the micro fauna that make a DSB work. I like the micro stars and spaghetti worms in my sand bed so I won't put anything in there that eats them.

jmann124 · Mar 28, 2013

Where does one get micro brittle stars? I've never seen any in any stores. I would love to have a few.

Connie · Mar 28, 2013

I have hundreds in my tank. Your LFS probably has some in their tanks and would give you a few. That is all it would take to get a good population going.

jmann124 said:
Where does one get micro brittle stars? I've never seen any in any stores. I would love to have a few.

coralreefing · Mar 28, 2013

They like to hide in the pores of live rock and they are hard to spot if you aren't really looking for them. When you're at the LFS look at the rock in their tanks closely, including the rock their corals are mounted on, for little tiny legs sticking out of the rock trying to catch food floating by. I've even seen them at petco. Other than that, you can buy them on eBay or places like Inland aquatics or IPSF. I could save you some next time I do a water change, but I don't know how I would get them to you.