Not another thread about...

[Flaxon-Waxon]

vacuuming sand in a marine tank. I would like to see if anyone does this, how much, how often, etc.

Reason being, I have some brown algae on the surface of my sand bed that goes about 1/4" down, and is very easy to suck up during a water change. I could easily swish the sand around in old tank water and re-add the sand to the tank...

 

[carey]

I would not vacuum your sand bed like in freshwater. Maybe lightly swoosh it over the top of the sand but thats it. While you may suck up the brown you will most likely release nasties into the water. This could be in the form of nitrates, phosphates and who knows what else.

 

[dmolavi]

What carey said. It's not worth the risk, esp after what you just went through...

 

[Dav3]

IMO it depends on bed depth and how often you do it. I have a shallow sand bed(.5 - 2") and vacuum sections every couple of months just to keep buildup to a minimum. It you have a deep sand bed, or haven't touched it in a long time best to leave it alone.

Also, I have a wide mouth vacuum that helps to keep the sand from getting sucked up into the hose/tube. And I pinch the tube off if too much sand gets close to the top of the vacuum.

Edit: one other consideration... I have a very active diamond goby that sifts the entire tank regularly so that may help with keeping my sand bed from accumulating too much.

 

[edwardclaxton]

I vacuum mine because I know no other way to keep it clean. My sand bed gets bad and for the last 6 months I've been battling I guess detritus it's brown. I've done everything I can think of. Ive: vacuumed comes back the next day, i have a gfo and carbon reactor, I've reduced feeding didn't help, I've switched foods, ran my skimmer dry and wet, bought a ghost goby, sand sifting star, conch, nass snail, reduced the hrs the light was on. Did the 3 days no light or food came back. I use Rodi water and rinse my food I have 3 clowns and 3 lyretail anthias in my 125. So I'm going to follow along and hopefully someone will help and give us a solution because I have yet to find one.

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