Vacuum the sandbed Yes or No ?

[Susan Edwards]

Haven't on the new tank yet. I rake and stir the sand bed every week. Never see any gunk. Have a diamond goby and cuc. Tank is almost 6 mo. No water change as parameters were on low side. Then the tank algae uglies came and my no3 test kit was way off. Got a hanna so now I know my numbers better. After my reef flux treatment, I'm going to vacuum the sand bed and see how good or bad it really is and do a water change. Plan to hook up awc after.

old tank I had too. It was awful.

 

[drblank1]

No vacuuming here. I have 2 conches, 1 sand sifting goby, and a few hermit crabs that keep the sand clean and white in my 70 gal tank. Took about a year to find the right CUC for my tank.

 

[homer1475]

Never touch mine. I'm also an old school reefer who was always taught "never touch the deep sandbed", but keep the inverts that keep it clean.

I will say though from time to time I will suck out the top layer into a filter sock when it starts to get nasty. So probably like 3 times a year.

I then bleach it, rinse it, let it dry, then add it back in.

 

[Bpb]

I didn’t touch the sand the last several years of my last tanks life and those were the happiest. My current tank is kinda rough still and I’ve been vacuuming the sandbed. I remember when I did sandbed vacuuming on my last tank it struggled seemingly constantly. Might be unrelated, but I’ve stopped doing it on this tank now. I fear I’m creating an unstable microbe culture in my sandbed every time I vacuum it. Might be zero relevance to that assumption…but leaving It alone has always worked best for me