My sand...

[Asher]

I've only been doing SW for about 2 months and I have a quick question:

Do I need to "vacuum" my sand? I know in my FW tanks that you need to gravel vac fairly regularly, but I wasn't sure if I nee dto in SW. I have lots of crabs and snails and I was thinking about getting a Diamond Goby too, but again what is the recommendation?

 

[Devilishturtles]

I vaccum my sand, just to get the gunk off of it. If you have a good amount of sand sifters, I doubt it's needed very often. I like to keep the sand looking clean though, so I vaccum lightly with each water change.

 

[melosu58]

I have two sand sifting gobies that keep my sand turned over and clean. No vaccuuming here.

 

[lando]

Sand sifters and good janitors are the key. I have never used the vac on my sand bed.

 

[roka64]

I don't do mine, but I agree with the rest. Get some sand stirrers and sifters and you should be good to go. I would also becareful, if you have a DSB, you could release nasty gas pockets.

 

[flareef]

a lot of nitrifiing bacteria live in your sand.vacuuming would do more harm than good

 

[DreamerTheresa]

I don't do mine, but I agree with the rest. Get some sand stirrers and sifters and you should be good to go. I would also becareful, if you have a DSB, you could release nasty gas pockets.

I'm assuming that you'd release the gasses by vacuuming, and not by having sand sifters?

 

[Jarred Darque]

What is a DSB? This is not the first time I have heard it :/

 

[melosu58]

Just run your cursor over it and it will tell you Deep Sand Bed. Most sifters will only go about 1/4 to 1/2 inch deep in the bed where vacuuming goes much deeper esp if your not familiar with what to do.

 

[lando]

DSB = deep sand bed. In theory, it is a sand base of 6+ inches of LS that creates an anaerobic environment for benefical bacteria to thrive. The down side is it can also trap pockets of toxic gas that, when released, can foul your tank. I prefer to stick with a sand bed of 3 inches and provide plenty of LR for my biological filtration.

 

[Jarred Darque]

And I thought the sand bed on my 10 gallon was deep :/ about 2 inches a 6 inch inch sand bed would full up hald my tank...and weigh 75 lbs.

 

[lando]

Yah, that is the problem of a DSB. In order to create an envirnment that is truely depleted of O2, it needs to be that deep.

 

[melosu58]

I prefer to stick with a sand bed of 3 inches and provide plenty of LR for my biological filtration.

I prefer to keep mine 1 inch less then this.

 

[Jarred Darque]

Well, even if I where doing SW in my 75, that is too deep :/ but on a really large, or at least a tall tank, i.e. 24+ inches tall, I could def see me doin that.

 

[angelscrx]

Mine is about 3 inches but only in the front of the tank. The back is bare bottom as i have a spray bar to push waste forward.

 

[roka64]

I'm assuming that you'd release the gasses by vacuuming, and not by having sand sifters?

It could happen, if you have gas pockets deeper than the sifters/stirrers can reach and you try to vacuum too deep. I don't know how often that will happen, but just be aware that it can. I do agree the vacuuming of the sand could possibly remove some of the nitrifying bacterai, but if you have enough LR, you should be good to go.