to stir or not to stir sandbed?

[badfinger]

Lately i have been having some hair algae on my sandbed. Not the whole thing just some spots. My rocks dont have any algae.

Should i stir my sandbed? Just the top or all of it. I have been stiring it lately to get detritus out. But should i leave it be?

My test kit says i have 0 nitrates and .04 phosphate. I kind of dont believe them but i am running gfo and rox carbon

 

[Steelerfan747]

You will get different opinions but I believe it's always good to stir it up a bit as it will keep it airated. There are different snails (Nassarius), fish (Yellow head sleeper goby or diamond) and sand sifting stars that you could get for this very purpose or you could syphon the sand bed when doing water changes. That being said, it also depends on how deep the sand bed is and how long it has remained unbothered as if not done regularly, can stir up a bit of detritus and if done too much too quickly can cause issues.

 

[eeyore357]

I watched this video the other day and it looks like a very good idea to me.
https://youtu.be/7yUl5tzAzZ8