To vacuum or not to vacuum...
- Thread starter mrextc
- Start date
mie
Active Member
I will second that, I was at a lfs last week getting pet food and i was checking out the new fish and i overheard the employee telling an inexperienced customer that to get rid of brown alage on the sand to stick your hand in the sand and stir it up! I was very quick to interject my two cents,and telling them the different and CORRECT techniques,
the employee was not very happy with me, oh well
1journeyman
Active Member
Stirring up a shallow sand bed shouldn't be an issue.
Brisk water flow and heavy skimming, along with proper clean up crew should maintain your sand for you.
Brisk water flow and heavy skimming, along with proper clean up crew should maintain your sand for you.
lesleybird
Active Member
Hi, I always use a Python thing to clean the sand when I do water changes and I can see all the gunk that it removes. I use the agronite sand that is listed as 1 to 2 mm. size so that not much gets picked up. Any smaller sand particals one cannot vaccuum without taking the sand with you. Any larger grains you get a nitrate trap. I also use a fine fish net in the sink to catch any stray sand which is not much. I have a fish only with crabs, snails and live rock and have been doing this for five years and have only used a skimmer every now and then and not had any nitrate problem. I do the 20 percent water changes every 2 to 4 weeks. I don't care what anyone else says or does, I just feel better removing waste products from the sand. I think all my live rock keeps the nitrates down. If you get the 1 to 2mm. agronite you can experiment and try to vaccuum and also not vaccuum and see what happens. Lesley
renogaw
Active Member
well, hopefully you do enough research to get your own answer and don't listen to people who go against the (sand) grain... vacuuming your sand bed is not a good idea. why would you suck up your substrate? if you have enough of a clean up crew, if you have enough flow, and don't overfeed, your sand should be clean.
the only thing i'd suggest is to vacuum the rock a tad, but be warned you will suck up pods. pods are beneficial detrivores you don't want to throw out. you're better off taking a turkey baster and blowing all the stuff off the rocks, then suck up the waste as it is suspended in your water column.
also, remember water changes aren't just to remove old water, it is to replenish trace elements you don't realize you're system is using up. that's why the 2 week water change rule is suggested
the only thing i'd suggest is to vacuum the rock a tad, but be warned you will suck up pods. pods are beneficial detrivores you don't want to throw out. you're better off taking a turkey baster and blowing all the stuff off the rocks, then suck up the waste as it is suspended in your water column.
also, remember water changes aren't just to remove old water, it is to replenish trace elements you don't realize you're system is using up. that's why the 2 week water change rule is suggested
i-love-pontiac
New Member
Ok, I have a question. How do you clean your sand if you don't have a "clean up crew"? Apparently I cant have anything with my fish.
My old tank was going for about 3 months, and its pretty ugly. What am I supposed to do?
My old tank was going for about 3 months, and its pretty ugly. What am I supposed to do?
lesleybird
Active Member
Originally Posted by renogaw
well, hopefully you do enough research to get your own answer and don't listen to people who go against the (sand) grain... vacuuming your sand bed is not a good idea. why would you suck up your substrate? if you have enough of a clean up crew, if you have enough flow, and don't overfeed, your sand should be clean.
the only thing i'd suggest is to vacuum the rock a tad, but be warned you will suck up pods. pods are beneficial detrivores you don't want to throw out. you're better off taking a turkey baster and blowing all the stuff off the rocks, then suck up the waste as it is suspended in your water column.
also, remember water changes aren't just to remove old water, it is to replenish trace elements you don't realize you're system is using up. that's why the 2 week water change rule is suggested
Why would you suck up your substrate?? I do not suck up my substrate but only use a net to catch any fine sand particals that may get sucked up. I guess you call anything that does no agree with your point of view as going against the grain? Lesley
well, hopefully you do enough research to get your own answer and don't listen to people who go against the (sand) grain... vacuuming your sand bed is not a good idea. why would you suck up your substrate? if you have enough of a clean up crew, if you have enough flow, and don't overfeed, your sand should be clean.
the only thing i'd suggest is to vacuum the rock a tad, but be warned you will suck up pods. pods are beneficial detrivores you don't want to throw out. you're better off taking a turkey baster and blowing all the stuff off the rocks, then suck up the waste as it is suspended in your water column.
also, remember water changes aren't just to remove old water, it is to replenish trace elements you don't realize you're system is using up. that's why the 2 week water change rule is suggested
Why would you suck up your substrate?? I do not suck up my substrate but only use a net to catch any fine sand particals that may get sucked up. I guess you call anything that does no agree with your point of view as going against the grain? Lesley
lesleybird
Active Member
Originally Posted by renogaw
well, hopefully you do enough research to get your own answer and don't listen to people who go against the (sand) grain... vacuuming your sand bed is not a good idea. why would you suck up your substrate? if you have enough of a clean up crew, if you have enough flow, and don't overfeed, your sand should be clean.
the only thing i'd suggest is to vacuum the rock a tad, but be warned you will suck up pods. pods are beneficial detrivores you don't want to throw out. you're better off taking a turkey baster and blowing all the stuff off the rocks, then suck up the waste as it is suspended in your water column.
also, remember water changes aren't just to remove old water, it is to replenish trace elements you don't realize you're system is using up. that's why the 2 week water change rule is suggested
Why would you suck up your substrate?? I do not suck up my substrate but only use a net to catch any fine sand particals that may get sucked up. I guess you call anything that does not agree with your point of view as going against the grain? The 1 to 2 mm. size range is used because it is a good size for the worms and burrowing fish and nitrate reduction plus it does not get sucked up much. I still have plenty of worms and pods that do not get sucked out. Lesley
well, hopefully you do enough research to get your own answer and don't listen to people who go against the (sand) grain... vacuuming your sand bed is not a good idea. why would you suck up your substrate? if you have enough of a clean up crew, if you have enough flow, and don't overfeed, your sand should be clean.
the only thing i'd suggest is to vacuum the rock a tad, but be warned you will suck up pods. pods are beneficial detrivores you don't want to throw out. you're better off taking a turkey baster and blowing all the stuff off the rocks, then suck up the waste as it is suspended in your water column.
also, remember water changes aren't just to remove old water, it is to replenish trace elements you don't realize you're system is using up. that's why the 2 week water change rule is suggested
Why would you suck up your substrate?? I do not suck up my substrate but only use a net to catch any fine sand particals that may get sucked up. I guess you call anything that does not agree with your point of view as going against the grain? The 1 to 2 mm. size range is used because it is a good size for the worms and burrowing fish and nitrate reduction plus it does not get sucked up much. I still have plenty of worms and pods that do not get sucked out. Lesley
reefkprz
Active Member
here is my take on it.
SSB stir with finger to kick up detritus do water change while detritus is suspended. this will prevent you from removing the benificial critters from your sand bed. and there are tons of them most of them are nearly impossible to see. blow the gunk out of your rocks with a powerhead or turkey baster too. siphoning a sand bed will long term have the effect of neutralizing most of the microfauna biodiversity from your sand bed AND LR as more stuff moves from the rock to recolonize the sand then gets removed again, not neccesarily bad but if you stop vaccuming the sand ever you will not have the critters in it to maintain a healthy sand bed.
DSB never vaccume a DSB this totally destroys the effectiveness of the anoxic layer thus negating the purpose of having a DSB, and potentially releasing the bacteria and gasses trapped in the anoxic layer poisoning your tank. again feel free to stir the top layer !inch or so with your finger to kicjk up detritus.
SSB stir with finger to kick up detritus do water change while detritus is suspended. this will prevent you from removing the benificial critters from your sand bed. and there are tons of them most of them are nearly impossible to see. blow the gunk out of your rocks with a powerhead or turkey baster too. siphoning a sand bed will long term have the effect of neutralizing most of the microfauna biodiversity from your sand bed AND LR as more stuff moves from the rock to recolonize the sand then gets removed again, not neccesarily bad but if you stop vaccuming the sand ever you will not have the critters in it to maintain a healthy sand bed.
DSB never vaccume a DSB this totally destroys the effectiveness of the anoxic layer thus negating the purpose of having a DSB, and potentially releasing the bacteria and gasses trapped in the anoxic layer poisoning your tank. again feel free to stir the top layer !inch or so with your finger to kicjk up detritus.