to vacuum or not to vacuum

[justin_tyme]

Do you guys regularly vacuum your sand beds?

I was wondering if that is required, or in any way beneficial.

I have a 50g tank, 3 months old, with 4 fish, 2 blue legged hermits, 4 turbo snails, 2 blood shrimps and a fromia starfish. I noticed I have a huge number of pods crawling all over the sand bed, and I'm free of diatoms or any unwanted (visible) waste. I'm afraid vacuuming would mostly mean killing off a lot of stuff. What do you think?

Also, do you think I should add any more detrivores? I have little or no algae growth right now, the turbo snails had to scout the back glass to (I guess) find something to eat...

 

[fishfreek]

Do you guys regularly vacuum your sand beds?

No.

Sand beds should be left untouched when it comes to a syphon or any other manual disturbance.

 

[HoopsGuru]

Also, do you think I should add any more detrivores? I have little or no algae growth right now, the turbo snails had to scout the back glass to (I guess) find something to eat...

If you have no algae, any new detrivores will starve (or all will starve collectively). I would not add any unless an actual need arises.

And also, no, don't vacuum the sandbed...the critters turn it for you.

 

[TriggerHappy]

what about crushed coral...should you vaccum that?

 

[HoopsGuru]

Yes, it is required to removed the trapped detritus.

 

[Strictly Marine]

Even if you did vaccum the sand bed, it would be very hard since most sand particles will just get sipon up with all the other waste. It seems like you have a well balanced system, I wouldn't add or take away from what you have now.

 

[Boxster]

I have a diatoms problem on my sandbed, should I vaccum out the diatoms?

 

[steve-s]

I have a diatoms problem on my sandbed, should I vaccum out the diatoms?

No, in most cases diatoms will alleviate themselves once their fuel source if used up and/or eliminated. Ensuring no more silicates or other unwanted elements enter the tank should allow the diatoms to "crash" on their own.

What are you using for your source water?

Cheers
Steve

 

[Boxster]

I had been vaccumming the sandbed for the last few days to get rid of the diatoms but seems losing the battle, I will stop now. My snails is doing a good job in "vaccumming" diatoms on my LR. Now that I did vaccum the sandbed, does it cause any harm to my tank? Just worried.

I use DO water from my goceries store and run my remora at the lowest cup setting. Also, I tried to clean the filter cartridge of my Emperor 400 twice a week. Cut down my light to 6 hours. Considering to buy another powerhead to battle the diatoms. I had 46g FOWLR with 2 small "Nemo", 1 small cleaner shrimp, 2 Hermits, 2 snails.

 

[steve-s]

Very few animals will actually bother with diatoms if any. With that in mind though, 2 hermits and 2 snails are not going to be that effective against nuisance algaes even with only two ocellaris clowns. I would suggest getting a few more snails that specialize on different areas of the tank. A mixture of cerith, nassarius, trochus and nerite depending on what is available to you. About 15-20 total should be a good start.

If the tank is still relatively new, the diatoms will go away in time. Have you had an opportunity to test the DI water from the grocery store to be sure it is sufficiently pure?

Cheers
Steve