Best way to Vacuum your sand.....?

[cthoughts1]

Hey all I have a 75 gallon with 100+ pounds of live rock.. Needless to say it's very hard to get a python in there to actually vacuum the sand.. In fact I haven't vacuumed in about 2 months now... Just water changes and water top offs.. My Nitrates are still at 0 or close to it.. However I do know that this can cause a problem down the road..

That all being said, anyone have a better way to vacuum the gravel when your tank is full of rock like mine is? Would those electrical vacuums make a difference? Any ideas or suggestions would be appreciated...

 

[wschang812]

i dont vacuum my sand either. but sleeper goby sifts it and thats about it. i only do water changes and top offs.

 

[cthoughts1]

Wschang812.. I actually have 2 sleeper gobies as well, which are awesome with the sand sifting (especially when they aren't spawning - or at least I think they are spawning - they dig under a huge rock and one gobie hides there for 3 days while the other gobie goes around the tank.. But I guess thats for a different thread)..

Anyhow, is it really a necessity to vacuum the sand? Will the sleeper gobies be enough? How long have you gone without vacuuming? I walked into a pet shop and was talking to one of the guys and he said its like a nitrate time bomb if you don't vacuum, that one day the tank will just get a nitrate spike, etc etc.. Any opinions on that? I just have a ton of rocks and to vacuum i'd practically have to take all or most of the rocks out, etc etc... =/

 

[wschang812]

i have never vacuumed my tank. its been set up for 9 months already and i see no adverse effects.

 

[cthoughts1]

:scratchch How much sand do you have and how big is your tank?

 

[wschang812]

i have a 46 bowfront, 2.5inches of sand and around 40-50 lbs of live rock.

 

[cthoughts1]

oh ok... I have a 75 gallon with about 100 pounds of live sand and 100+ pounds of live rock.. I wish I would have bought at least 1 more sleeper gobie when I got these little guys.. I wouldn't get any more of them simply because I'd have to ruin their chemestry, my two gobies get along great.. It's a pleasure to watch those little guys.. So you think I'll be ok without vacuuming?

thanks..

 

[wschang812]

how thick is your sand bed? as long as the sand bed is being aerated and no food is getting stuck under the sand bed and rotting, the nitrates should not spike out of nowhere.

 

[cthoughts1]

My sandbed is about 3 inches.. I have about 50 nassarious snails about 50 hermits, and the 2 sleeper gobies, etc.. I don't really see much, if any of the food hit the ground, my fish are hungry little guys that go into a feeding frenzy when they see me getting close to the tank with the food, not to mention when the food goes in..

So nitrates will not just spike right? they'll go up gradually?

 

[wschang812]

i would assume it would go up gradually. i say just continue to monitor your parameters and continue to do what your doing. how long has your set up been running?

 

[cthoughts1]

i've been running for about 6 to 7 months now.. More or less... And now that i really think about it I haven['t really vacuumed for at least 2 or three months... hmm..

 

[wschang812]

how did you vacuum in the beginning?

 

[cthoughts1]

Well in the beginning I didn't have so much live rock so I used a python.. I got the live rock like 3 months or so ago.. And since then I haven't vacuumed..

 

[wschang812]

i think you'll be fine, just keep up with the water changes. i do one every 3 weeks.

 

[cthoughts1]

ok, will do.. Thanks for the advice..

 

[Pinkheine]

From our experience... the past year... we have not touched the sand. We have plenty of snails (sand dwellers), fish (sand dwellers, wrasses and such), pistol shrimp (shoots the sand all over digging his burrows), hermits... etc. We have had no issues with nitrate to date. Our sandbed is 3" in some spots, other spots thicker and more shallow in others.

I have read about sand becoming sponges and posing a problem later on though I think the results vary from glass box to glass box and there is no accurate way to tell if your system will have adverse effects.

We do however blow the rocks off on a regular basis to keep them clean in all the crevices where things build up. I have read where annually you should clean the rocks very well... though I'm not sure exactly what that means. Taking them out and scrubbbing them off? or simply just blowing them off periodically?

For myself (in my tank) the only function of the sandbed is for appearances. I honestly don't think it does much else... because it is always moving/being disturbed. As for those with a DSB I'd think that would play a different role in the system... maybe someone else with experience overtime with a DSB could chime in on how they maintain their system.

 

[Chiefmcfuz]

Do you have gravel, sand or crushed coral as substrate?

 

[cthoughts1]

i just reread the title to the post... lol it should say sand... anyway to change that now? it was late, what can i say....

 

[Chiefmcfuz]

Changing it now

 

[cthoughts1]

thanks... i must have been half dreaming of my green spotted puffers that i started out with.. they had gravel.. i eventually brought them up from fresh water to saltwater and have the two of them in one of my tanks along with two clowns and a small hippo.. =) and yes there is sand there as well, not gravel.. lol