To clean a sand bed or not.....That is the question

[Justin]

I know there's a lot of opinions out there on this and its probably been posted before but I was hoping to see what other members are doing currently. I've always been a strong believer in gravel vacuuming my sand bed but about a month ago I was at a fellow reefers house and saw and extremely beautiful matured tank full of sps and lps and he has never once cleaned his sand bed. His tank was around 7 years old I believe he said. Another thing I noticed lately is every time I clean my sand bed I'm messing with the corals that I keep on the sand bed and i'm sure this has some negative effects on growth. So the question is , What do you do?!?!

Edit.... I have pictures of his tank , let me see if I can find them

 

[amado]

I never touch it. Cleanup crew keeps it clean
Brittle star fish, snails, sand shifting goby

 

[DangerDave]

I voted no, but the two tanks I have sand in have very little sand...maybe a half inch on average. There are bare spots in the back due to flow. So it’s turned often, no worries for me.

 

[Sponge]

I do occasionally clean my Sand bed. Of course there are different levels of “clean”. Generally I do not vacuum. And clean is very subjective. I would categorize what I do as manicuring. I sift out broken pieces of rubble. And find sometimes areas of the sand seem to sorta cement together so I break that up and remove larger pieces. Also my fish like to occasionally rearrange the sand to there liking. So again. My cleaning is more a matter of grooming. But the process does make the sand “cleaner”. Suffice to say, at the very least I often disturb my sand.

 

[mnat]

Depends on the tank and on the sand bed. I know people who used to run a deep sand bed and that you don't really want to do a deep clean as it can release some nasty stuff. Our tank now we clean the sand bed pretty regularly because the overflow on our tank isn't really "strong" enough so a lot of stuff settles in our display. If we let it go too long we get a spike in nitrates and phosphates. So again, depends on your system and your maintenance schedule.

 

[Paulie 069]

I know there's a lot of opinions out there on this and its probably been posted before but I was hoping to see what other members are doing currently. I've always been a strong believer in gravel vacuuming my sand bed but about a month ago I was at a fellow reefers house and saw and extremely beautiful matured tank full of sps and lps and he has never once cleaned his sand bed. His tank was around 7 years old I believe he said. Another thing I noticed lately is every time I clean my sand bed I'm messing with the corals that I keep on the sand bed and i'm sure this has some negative effects on growth. So the question is , What do you do?!?!

Edit.... I have pictures of his tank , let me see if I can find them

So I always say.,can’t go wrong with clean

 

[horseplay]

I don't. A lot of stuff lives in the sand. However my trio of sand-sleeping wrasses stir up the sand all the time.

 

[Paulie 069]

I don't. A lot of stuff lives in the sand. However my trio of sand-sleeping wrasses stir up the sand all the time.

To be honest I’m going to consider today my very first day with a sand bottom I have crushed coral and argonite sand mixed together heavy on the sand I do not have any more fruity pebble’s they’re all gone

 

[Justin]

To be honest I’m going to consider today my very first day with a sand bottom I have crushed coral and argonite sand mixed together heavy on the sand I do not have any more fruity pebble’s they’re all gone

its about time! Sand will look way better hahaha

 

[Hockeynut]

I clean mine occasionally, and little sections at a time.
My sand is only about an inch deep and there are certain sections which have less flow and that’s where most gunk settles those are my target areas.
It’s funny and I don’t know if anyone else has this situation.
I have a lemon peel tang and that fish will only poop in one corner of the tank I see it all of the time swim to that corner poop and swim away. It’s crazy but it’s like it’s own personal litter box.
That’s definitely a target area lol

 

[horseplay]

I clean mine occasionally, and little sections at a time.
My sand is only about an inch deep and there are certain sections which have less flow and that’s where most gunk settles those are my target areas.
It’s funny and I don’t know if anyone else has this situation.
I have a lemon peel tang and that fish will only poop in one corner of the tank I see it all of the time swim to that corner poop and swim away. It’s crazy but it’s like it’s own personal litter box.
That’s definitely a target area lol

Yeah my tang did that too only in one of the corners.