Live sand bed maintenance

[6stokes]

I've been using one of those gravel vacuums in the sand bed when doing water changes. Is this a bad idea? Does it disturb the microfauna?

 

[sweetreef]

not the best thing i just wave my hand on the sand bed to suck up stuff.....Crushed Coral as a bedding i would say to suck stuff up with a vacuum...But as for sand bedding you can suck away all the good stuff in the tank...

 

[golfish]

Originally posted by 6stokes
I've been using one of those gravel vacuums in the sand bed when doing water changes. Is this a bad idea? Does it disturb the microfauna?
The idea of a live sand bed is to add as much life, grow as much life and maintaine as much life as you can. Using a gravel vaccum literally sucks the life out of the sand bed. Its kind of hard to get used too but it best to just leave it alone.

 

[beth]

golfish is right. You need to get enough sand fauna in the sandbed that they will be the once moving the sand around, and eating the "leftovers" that your fish don't catch. How deep is your bed?

 

[6stokes]

My bed is 2-3 inches. My tank is about six months old and is just now to the point where when looking at the sand it's clean. Prior, I've been battling different phases of micro algae, so that's why I was sucking it out on a weekly basis.
Thanks for the info. I wont disturb the bed anymore.

 

[dacia]

Get some snails and a fighting conch for any algae problems in or on the sand. They have taken care of what I used to call a sandbed algae problem. :happy:

 

[nm reef]

If it is aragonite based sand...and you use the sand as a means of filtration then I'd say its best to encourage diversity within the sand bed and not disturb it at all...except maybe the very top layer...and preferably with sand sifting type critters.If you have crushed coral...then use the vac to clean it up. :thinking: