vaccum substrate advie

[supermarvin76]

I have a 50gal saltwater, with soon to have live rock added. I have a crushed coral mixed with sand substrate. I wish I would have done more research sooner so I would only have sand. When I do water changes, should I vaccum the substrate or leave it be for crabs shrimp etc... to get??

 

[seaham358]

I would before you add the LR take the CC out or as much as you can. If you have sand and you vaccum you will be taking the sand out and leaving the CC. If you get a good size clean up crew they should be able to clean it.
It also depends on how much sand vs. Cc you have.

 

[supermarvin76]

What will happen if I leave the crushed coral in there? Anything bad?

 

[RMPD109]

The CC will eventually rise to the top layer as the finer sand particles will settle to the bottom of the substrate.

 

[malkore]

crushed coral is also a detris trap...meaning you'll want ot vaccum the crushed coral, but not the sand. So you can see you have a little problem here.

However the coral shouldn't get nasty too quickly...its possible everything will layer/settle before you need to vac the CC.

 

[seaham358]

Trapped waste will brake down over time causing high nitrates...