Mandy, now your bringing up something else I read about having crap float all over. I read somewhere that you should stir up your sand bed. To me that makes sense (especially considering the crap I see in the sand). Is this something you do as well?forgot to say, if you start blowing off rocks and haven't done it before, you will be amazed at the amount of crap flying around, so i suggest you do it just before a water change to help remove some of it, Once you do it regularly and there isn't so much crap floating around then a water change is not necessary. hence i now do it weekly. but water changes only every 21 days.
If u have a deep sand bed be very very careful, only rake or turkey baste the top 1cm as it may release some harmful gasses & pockets that could be dangerous to the tank. If it's a new sand bed then its ok to do. I only have a shallow sand bed so I do rake completely over once a week. We actually vacumm it every few months too. But we have done this from set up so no dangerous pockets have been able to formMandy, now your bringing up something else I read about having crap float all over. I read somewhere that you should stir up your sand bed. To me that makes sense (especially considering the crap I see in the sand). Is this something you do as well?
Saltyskimmer
I don't know much about them personally, but don't they make a complete mess with sand and some times manage to bring down whole scapes rocks and all ?If you want your sand bed to be constantly turned over so nothing accumulates in/on it, get one or two engineer gobies. In fact, if you'll pay for overnight shipping, I'll send you a pair of 9" engineers...
Yes, they create a new landscape nearly every day... lol! They can wreck your rock scapes unless you have the rocks completely on the bottom of the tank. That's one of the reasons most will recommend putting the rocks into the tank first, and then adding sand. Don't build your house on shifting sand kind of thing...I don't know much about them personally, but don't they make a complete mess with sand and some times manage to bring down whole scapes rocks and all ?