should I vacuum sand

[huey112]

I have about a 3 inch sand bed and I cycled with live rock and a shrimp the tank has been up for sometime now and I was wondering if I should vacuum my sand to get all the dead stuff that fell off and to clean my sand. I had live sand.

 

[JPloman]

I would get a bigger clean up crew. They should keep your sand bed clean for you.

 

[huey112]

I have 1 sand sifting starfish 4 turbo snails and 8 hermit crabs. I plan on getting more. I have 2 fish. In a 70 gal tank. I'm just taking it slow. The only reason I ask is because my lfs said I should.

 

[EJS4]

I won't the clean up crew will take care of it. Get other types of snails for sand(narsissus, cerith). Turbos are better for glass.

 

[AR15 guy]

My turbo's do great on rock but they aren't doing so great on the glass in a 10 gallon. And there is two of them.

I would get a bunch of blue leg hermits. In a 70gallon you could get a couple more dozen easily. They do a great job picking junk off your rock and out of your sand. They do a great job. I would stay away from regular hermits though.

 

[JPloman]

There are sand sifting snails that might help you out as well. I agree with AR15 guy about the hermits. You can never had too many hermits... if you do, they will just kill and eat each other.

 

[AR15 guy]

I only had about 8 blue leg hermits to start with. 2 have died in about 2 weeks. I think it was because I did not have any extra shells in the tank. I have some extras now so hopefully they won't keep dieing. I don't know what else it would be. Because everything else in the tank is doing great. I am going to have to get an algea shrubber since my turbo snails cannot keep the glass clean. It is cyano to 8O

 

[JPloman]

On the General Forums, there is a question about cyano, read that. It will help you alot.

 

[EJS4]

4 Turbos is not enough to keep up with the glass. I have about a dozen in my 120 and they are only getting to about 1/3 -1/2 of the algae on glass. I think I read somewhere a tank could support 1 snail for every 2 gallons. Even at 1 per 5 gallons that would still be another 8 snails.