Clean sand or don't clean sand?

KayF

New Member
Checked par today, before doing weekly water change, our nitrates have been running high the last 2 weeks, was still a tad bit high (between 5 and 10 ppm). Rearranged powerheads last night and seen a lot of unwanted stuff floating. My questions is, when we do our water change tonight, should we also clean the sand?
 
Most people clean half the bed pretty good each water change, then the other half on the next. Don't want any detritus to build up too much but techniques vary.
 

lbiminiblue

Well-Known Member
depends on how deep it is. Your tank is new or cycling, I imagine? If that's the case, do a little surface/ top half scrape and do the water change right away so you can catch all the detritus.
 

AquaFXdotnet

RS Sponsor
+1 lbimini, also from what I've read be gentle when cleaning the sand too much agitation can cause a tank to mini cycle. Anyone else add to that?
 

lbiminiblue

Well-Known Member
+1 lbimini, also from what I've read be gentle when cleaning the sand too much agitation can cause a tank to mini cycle. Anyone else add to that?
Well if it's already cycling I don't think it should be a problem. It's only a problem if bacteria has already grown
 
Littler tank I have a little light vacuum now and again as it has a deep sand bed. There are also only 3 fish to the 250L

Big tank I will vacuum every other water change or so. Shallow sand bed (no sand bed in one corner because the clowns say so) and probably over stocked.

I can't vacuum more than 50% of the sand anyway because of the amount of rock work. Therefore I am happy to do all I can get to easily.
 

Mike Johnson

Well-Known Member
With a DSB I wouldn't vacuum it at all; I'd be concerned with taking out the good stuff. Or if there's something visible like gray dust in a low flow area (detritus) or unwanted algae I'd syphon that trying to not disturb the sandbed too much.
 

lbiminiblue

Well-Known Member
Littler tank I have a little light vacuum now and again as it has a deep sand bed. There are also only 3 fish to the 250L

Big tank I will vacuum every other water change or so. Shallow sand bed (no sand bed in one corner because the clowns say so) and probably over stocked.

I can't vacuum more than 50% of the sand anyway because of the amount of rock work. Therefore I am happy to do all I can get to easily.
leave disruption of the Sb to fish like jawfish. If you really want, get a scraper and run it over the surface if the bed to make it look clean. Vacuuming it could kill off anaerobic processes you want to happen.
 
leave disruption of the Sb to fish like jawfish. If you really want, get a scraper and run it over the surface if the bed to make it look clean. Vacuuming it could kill off anaerobic processes you want to happen.

I should have made my original post a bit clearer.

Small tank with DSB, I lightly vacuum the top couple of mm or in American, 1/8".

The big tank I vacuum deeper. I have a DSB in the sump of this tank.

Both tanks have rock which covers more than a 50% footprint of the sand.

So in reality, although I vacuum both tanks, I only vacuum 10% surface area on the small tank and about 30% on the bigger tank.

Sorry for the original misleading info........my fault for being on here instead of doing insurance reports and estimates lol................As I should indeed still be doing now!
 

lbiminiblue

Well-Known Member
I should have made my original post a bit clearer.

Small tank with DSB, I lightly vacuum the top couple of mm or in American, 1/8".

The big tank I vacuum deeper. I have a DSB in the sump of this tank.

Both tanks have rock which covers more than a 50% footprint of the sand.

So in reality, although I vacuum both tanks, I only vacuum 10% surface area on the small tank and about 30% on the bigger tank.

Sorry for the original misleading info........my fault for being on here instead of doing insurance reports and estimates lol................As I should indeed still be doing now!
so you plan on vacuuming the sump of the main tank? Does the big tank have a deep sand bed? Really, the sand bed should not be disturbed by vacuuming. The bacteria thrive like that-without oxygen-and presenting oxygen to even the smallest amount of them could have some unforeseen consequences. Better to, like i said, scrape it very lightly with a tool like a rake or get a sandsifter. 30% is way too much on a deep sand bed.
 
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