When doing continuous water change how often do you vacuum your sand bed?

[Hammer100]

I have been doing continuous water change for a few weeks and its going great but i was wondering if/when others are doing a larger change and cleaning their sandbed?

 

[ebushrow]

My personal opinion is never.....I have never vacuumed my sand bed in 15 years....I don't really see a purpose on disturbing the bacteria in the sand that reduce the ammonia and nitrite...IMO. If it is for aesthetics I just get some cuc to stir up the sandbed.

 

[BoomCorals]

My personal opinion is never.....I have never vacuumed my sand bed in 15 years....I don't really see a purpose on disturbing the bacteria in the sand that reduce the ammonia and nitrite...IMO. If it is for aesthetics I just get some cuc to stir up the sandbed.

Ditto. It's not like a freshwater tank. You generally don't want to disturb the sand in a saltwater tank.

 

[JBradford]

I've only been running for a year but I never have as well, with the exception of when I was doing thru dirty algae stages. But even then I picked at the algae with my vacuum and not the sand.

 

[sa6hir]

When ever I do a water change maybe once a month I'm vacuuming my sand bed, never had a problem with anything. That's 100-200 litres.

 

[Rick.45cal]

I have a shallow sandbed, that migrates around because of the extreme current in my tank. It requires daily adjustment. The areas that don't migrate that I can get to I go around occasionally and either blow the detritus out with a turkey baster or I stir it with a tool. I generally stir my sand when I want some additional nutrients and particulates in the water column. (Every week or two I will do it, I also stir all the detritus in my sump so it gets pumped into the display.

Sometimes I will run a felt sock to clean it out of the water column other times I will just let it roll with the 200 micron mesh sock.
I basically use my sandbed for what it is, a nutrient sink. It helps me maintain nutrients and feed my tank. (Obviously this isn't the only thing I feed my tank, but it is part of my routine).

 

[Hammer100]

interesting replies....i had just went through a cyano outbreak so i was stirring mine up some. I got a goby thats doing a good job of now (wish i hadnt bought that thing)