vacuuming substrate

[keith gray]

I have a 65gl with 3 inches of Aragonite and about 1" of finer sand.
I do 20% water changes every 2 weeks, I jhave a wet/dry with rubble rock and chaeto. I also run a skimemer, plus some filter pad here and there.
With that said, I have had this set up for about 4-5 years.
I have never had nitrates below 40 that I can remember. I am starting to get some brown algae on rocks but not extreme issue. In an effort to get nitrates down some more (and probably phosphates) I am considering vacuuming the substrate.
I did not know you could even do this. No one ever talks about it. I have got to think that if I have 4-5 years of detritus and whatever other crap in the sand that I could drastically reduce nitrates and phosphates byt vacuuming.
When I bought my setup from a LFS years ago they told me I would never need to vacuum, just do water changes, etc.
Is this LFS stupid or am I ?
thoughts ????!!!!
If anyone does this on a regular basis let me know how often and any other secrets/suggestions you may have.
thanks

 

[posiden]

Using a gravel vac on the substrate is generally not needed. If a corse substrate is used, then it is a good idea to do so. It sounds like you don't have a corse substrate though. Also, if you have never disturbed it before......then doing so now could be a bad idea. Sometimes substrates will build toxic gunk. If you have it/some, disturbing it now would release it into the tank. This is what I would be worried about.
I would assume that you use RO or RO/DI water. So, I am wondering about silicates getting past your RO membraine, how old it is. If you use RO, RO/DI water that is.
I have used Distiled water for about as long as my tank has been setup untill very recent. I have never been able to get rid of the diatom dusting in my tank untill I got the RO/DI unit going.

 

[louti]

with only a 1 inch sand bed, i wouldn't be too concerned about releasing toxins. I gravel vac my sand from time to time. You'll suck up some sand in the process, but not too much if you're careful.

 

[9supratt4]

Just get 50-100 Nassarius snails and they'll do it for you!!

 

[posiden]

Originally Posted by louti
http:///forum/post/3164433
with only a 1 inch sand bed, i wouldn't be too concerned about releasing toxins. I gravel vac my sand from time to time. You'll suck up some sand in the process, but not too much if you're careful.

The way I read it he has 4 inches total.

 

[reefkprz]

Originally Posted by Posiden
http:///forum/post/3164454
The way I read it he has 4 inches total.
I got the same results when I added it up 3 + 1 = 4
I would reccomend going deeper or shallower in depth, 2-5 inches is the trouble depths for sand beds. too deep to stay fully aerobic, and too shallow to maintain a proper anaerobic layer. mid depth sand beds generally contribute to "old tank syndrome" and are dangerous when (as asked) siphoning the bed. in disturbing what anaerobic spots there may be causing die off of the oxygen intolerant bacteria.
I wouldnt siphon that bed I would however (before a waterchange) stirr the top inch with my finger to kick up detritus, abnd help maintain the aerobic capacity of the top of the bed. then perform the water change to remove suspended as much suspended detritus as possible.

 

[keith gray]

I do use Ro/DI water but have no unit
I did vaccum bout 1/2 way down or a little more.
sand looks so much better. Did 20 % water change. Skimmer picked out a lot since yesterday. Nitrates cam down quite a bit. I missed afew spots due to rocks but Ican get those later.
I am glad I did this and will prolly make a habit of doing it every few months.
thanks for everyone's response
PS: I was very careful not to stir up too much!

 

[xcali1985]

My tank gets a very light vac every month. About 1/2 an inch to an inch down into my bed. If you don't let it build up then you don't have the risk of having a spike when finally cleaning it. Like I said its very light and I only siphon as much as i need for a water change which is my monthly 20%. I don't do it with my weekly 10% changes.