Should you or should you not vacuum the sand bed in a reef tank

[Viking_Reefing]

I do not know - but this is my sand without any maintenance from me for the last 5 years.......... IMO - the magic that´s happens maybe can be spelled ecological and biological principles...........

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Sincerely Lasse

Yeah, there will always be outliners. However, that’s not the case for most peoples tanks.

Your tank is definitely not the norm, just the fact that you have those huge deresa clams that will be sucking up a ton of nutrients from the crud that accumulates and breaks down is an enormous benefit. Not to mention the very large coral mass va water volume.

 

[Lasse]

I´m just no loosing my second clam - It will only be one huge left. But according to nutrients - they vary between 0.7 and 0.08 in PO4 and for the moment the NO3 has decrease from 38 mg/L to around 1.5 because of denitrification in my reverse flow DSB (a little help of DOC too). Unused nutrients is for sure not low in my aquarium.

The secret in my case is the (of me) unstirred gravel and a lot of grazers

Sincerely Lasse

 

[Jared Bryant]

I have vacuumed my sand in every tank for 20 years. Once a month or whenever I am not feeling lazy. I think it is important to clean every part of the tank periodically. Sump, Sand, Rock etc...

 

[Subsea]

I have vacuumed my sand in every tank for 20 years. Once a month or whenever I am not feeling lazy. I think it is important to clean every part of the tank periodically. Sump, Sand, Rock etc...

With systems at about 500G and 52 years of Reefing I am a Laissez faire reefkeeper. I contract the sandbed maintenance to the janitors And when I lightly stir the sand, I feed sea apples and anemone. I choose to emulate nature. No skimmer, no scheduled water change.

This tank has been set up for 25 years. No sandbed maintenance for 5 years.

PS: I also have a reverse flow undergravel filter and a cryptic sponge refugium and a mud filter with 25 years of detritus that is crawling with worms & things.

 

[Subsea]

Because we are talking about cleanliness, let’s tip the scales to MULM. THIS IS WHAT @Paul B says about that matter:

"Mulm" in a reef tank

I think one of the most important, and least understood or mentioned things in a reef tank is "mulm". That stuff that grows in the dark portions of a tank if it is set up long enough. "Mulm" is a combination of algae, sponges, bacteria, pods, worms, detritus, poop and any thing else that can be p...

wamas.org

 

[Subsea]

[A sterile tank IMO is the biggest problem we have keeping certain fish healthy.]

[Sterile is good in an operating room but very bad in a tank.]

Because @Paul B , @Lasse believe in maximizing biodiversity and minimizing stress for fish and coral, we promote “emulate nature”.

 

[brandon429]

question for readers

if we took 100 reef tanks and washed out all of the sandbeds with tap water until the sandbed was 100% destroyed/leaving only calcium carbonate sand grains and absolutely nothing else inert or living, then reassembled all the reefs on top of perfectly blasted clean sand, and did not re input bottle bac into any of the tanks, what would the immediate results be for 100 reef tanks? what would the 10 month results be?

make some predictions, post them

knowing the answer to that can help determine best practices because what happens to one person's tank isn't the same pattern study as doing it in 100 reef tanks

this thread is about merely vacuuming them... I'm talking complete obliteration in one pass, on a ten thousand dollar 5 year old sps reef=what would happen if we just blasted the sandbed completely sterilized in one pass/ then re assembled the tank

make some predictions lemme see what the readers have to say

 

[radiata]

I've historically agreed with Subsea's laissez-faire approach.

But I recently have had near wipe-outs for my NOT cleaning my sand bed when it was needed. In an attempt to keep my tribe of Dispar Anthias well-fed, I created an automatic hourly pellet feed. I failed to realize that uneaten pellets, of which there were many, were accumulating in some parts of my DSB caused by localized water currents. The accumulation resulted in H2S being generated in those select parts of the DSB. When I finally elected to clean the accumulated pellet areas (twice now) it had a really negative impact on my fish. They recovered the first time, but the second time I lo$t an Achilles Tang, a Red Sea Regal and a smallish Aussie Harlequin Tusk.

Take Away: Beware of the possibility of H2S buildup. It may never happen to you, but remember that it could happen to you!

 

[Paul B]

if we took 100 reef tanks and washed out all of the sandbeds with tap water until the sandbed was 100% destroyed/leaving only calcium carbonate sand grains and absolutely nothing else inert or living,

That would almost be like a brand new tank (depending on the rock) It would not be healthy and if you kept your full compliment of fish in there (depending again on the rock and how many fish you have) That tank will be a complete failure and most likely crash as it would not be able to carry almost any load.

I just cleaned my tank of invasive sponge and to do that I removed everything in the tank except the gravel. I just stirred that up and sucked out the detritus which left most of the bacteria some of which has been in my tank for 52 years. (The tank birthday was yesterday) Then I put everything back.

 

[nuxx]

I really wished I would have, but just got lazy when it came to it...

 

[Paul B]

Subsea, you have a beautiful very healthy tank there.

 

[xiongsy]

I thoroughly vaccuum my sand. Lots of dirty detritus within the sand

 

[mfinn]

I use my python gravel vac and do most of the open area at every water change.
Always have and I don't see a reason to stop.

 

[EeyoreIsMySpiritAnimal]

But im starting to see a pile up of fish waste Wich is why I’m wanting to go on and do the water change

Increase flow to these areas so it can get to your existing filtration.

 

[resortez]

With systems at about 500G and 52 years of Reefing I am a Laissez faire reefkeeper. I contract the sandbed maintenance to the janitors And when I lightly stir the sand, I feed sea apples and anemone. I choose to emulate nature. No skimmer, no scheduled water change.

This tank has been set up for 25 years. No sandbed maintenance for 5 years.

PS: I also have a reverse flow undergravel filter and a cryptic sponge refugium and a mud filter with 25 years of detritus that is crawling with worms & things.

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WOW. Gorgeous tank. Thanks for sharing.

 

[brandon429]

a mega clean sandbed underneath 12 year old live rock isn't a sterile tank

sterile rocks are the bane of reefing.