vacuum sand??

[annie p]

How many vacuum your sand? Or let the CUC take care of it.

[travie]

I've never vacuumed the sand. I do occassionally turnover the top layer when it gets any form of algae build up. I let my Nassarius Snails take care of it.

[MrJim]

I vacuum my sand, turns out it's becoming a twice per week job instead of once since everything just sits on top of it. The black sand I use just shows everything and my GF is a poop machine:hmm3grin2orange: The Estes sand I use is pretty heavy and I've realized a couple techniques that allows me to get stuff up without sucking up sand, even when it stirs up a bit.

[labnjab]

I've never vacuumed my sand, the CUC and powerheads do a good job of cleaning it up and moveing it around. Like travie said, I do, on occasion, stir it up when algae starts to grow on it. I found if you vacuum sand in a marine tank, you pick up a lot of pods, worms, and other beneficial sand sifters. If you do see food building up, I would remove it with a turky baster, but other then that I let nature take care of it

[Lady Hobbs]

You just run your vac over the sand high enough to pick up the debris. You don't want the sugar sands for the reason that it's too light and gets sucked up too easily.

[annie p]

Good!!! No more vacuuming for me! I have 7 tanks and try to WC them all on Sunday It will save time

[Wild Turkey]

The only time its okay to not vacuum (imo) is when you have live plants, the idea is that stuff is going to turn into gold for your plants with the right bacteria and a little time.

I vacuum my ec but very lightly, for the same reason. I vacuum basically until the concentration of plants makes it impossible/not worth it.

Hopefully the idea is, by then you have a nice little compost in the bottom of your aquarium that will take care of most of that junk.

[rageybug]

Don't vacuum your SW tank if you want to keep your pods.

[cocoa_pleco]

yep, dont vac saltwater tanks

[ILuvMyGoldBarb]

Agreed. Never vaccum in a SW tank. The only time you vac a SW tank is when you have a pred tank and excess food from the messy eaters. There is too much beneficial stuff in the sand bed to vac it.