Ok I’ll go
I have 2-3 inches at the most in my tank and 4 in the REF.
My system is only 14 months old so I am by far no expert here.
I keep few fish in my system. The ones I do keep are workers. Kole, and Yellow tangs, algae blenny, rabbit fish, and a few others. I feed them very lightly…1 cube on mysis, 1 of 100% pro-veggie, and 1 brine every other day at most. I am a firm believer that the less you put in the better. I feed Tahitian blend at most twice a month and only a few drops.
I also believe that the more you physically remove the better. While in a bare bottom tank this is easy, I still clean my overflow sponges nightly. My filter pads weekly. And I change a lot of water. Every Sunday I change about 25 gallons and when I do this I siphon water from the rocks only. I see plenty of detritus come from all the holes and crevices. I pump alot of water in the tank to keep waste in the water column in order to get it into my sponges. It took some time and carefully placed LR to achieve the water flow with out sandstorms.
I keep a cuke, and lots of snails to help maintain the bed.
I have no issue removing a small patch of LS here and there in the future. If done in small amounts using a siphon why not. You have the added security that you are removing the waste. And to me it’s more important to add new life to the tank. I enjoy watching the micro life as much as the corals and fish. So I would gladly add new critters when needed. Maybe in another year I will start removing say 2-3Lb patches and replace that with new LS from local reefers or online vendors. Like anything else if done SLOWLY what will I hurt?
Well that’s what I do and my plans for upkeep on my reef. IMHO a sand bed is just another filter and it needs to be maintained at some point.
I could be totally off base here. And if I am please tell me so. I am learning like everyone else and if you think my plans will create problems I want to know.
See tank description below.
S