cleaning the aquarium

[fishforlife]

When cleaning/water changing the aquarium how much vacuming do I need to do? I have been simply vacuming all the sand I can get to and leaving all the stuff behind and under the rocks alone... Seems to be fine and doing well, but i was just checking.

[LoneStar]

I would say only vacuum only detritus you see built up on the sand. No need to do the whole thing if there is no significant build up.

[fishforlife]

usually the sand is white---and brown :( .....I do not see any type of Detritus so I just vac the top of the sand..

[Ping]

I don’t believe a proper sand bed should ever be vacuumed. With the exception of the Asparagasum algae, my sand beds are very clean. I have very few snails and crabs, but under a microscope the beds are all thriving with diversity. When a sand bed is vacuumed, a large portion of the micro food web is removed.

[uriah]

I don’t believe a proper sand bed should ever be vacuumed. With the exception of the Asparagasum algae, my sand beds are very clean. I have very few snails and crabs, but under a microscope the beds are all thriving with diversity. When a sand bed is vacuumed, a large portion of the micro food web is removed.

What are your recommendations for removing crud from the top level of sand (poop, ect.) Goby?

[Kristy]

What are your recommendations for removing crud from the top level of sand (poop, ect.) Goby?

People comment all the time that our sand looks really white and clean. We give all the credit to our little diamond goby, who is the hardest worker in the tank, constantly sifting and transporting mouthfuls of sand from one place to another. Now that I think about it, the nassarius snails might also help some too. They work like little submarines with little antennae poking above the sandline. At feeding time, they all come up for some clean-up!

[NateDogg]

some times I will stir my sand a little right before I do a water change. This helps to get some of the crud out of the sand. I am always careful to only do it right before the water change though. I don't want to mess with the water parameters. Any opinions on that?

[Ping]

Sand sifting gobies should not be considered a cleaner of the sand bed. Often their life expectancy is shortened in the captive environment because over time they decimate the micro infauna. Instead, the Aquascaping should be designed around the needs of the Goby.

Gently stirring a small portion of the sand bed is an excellent way to put particulate matter into the water column. This will be consumed by the fish, corals, or skimmer. Some people do this daily and have expressed positive results. I would do this just before lights out.

As for removing detritus from the surface of the sand bed, flow is the best method. It keeps the detritus in suspension and/or forces it into the sand bed through advection. I do have three Nassarius snails in each of my deep sand beds as well as a few hermit crabs in each tank that contains fish.

[fishforlife]

Okay...When I clean I jam the tub deep in the sand bed and weatch all the brown water flow....I thought this was cleaning, but in actuality I am getting rid of muchneeded micro organisims??? I have pletny of snails, crabs, I have a golby(Oh, any my goby keeps my sand white 98% of the time...he is fun to watch).....

So a water change then is is taking some water out of the lower level of the tanks water column while leaving the sand be as undisturbed as possible.

Advice on the technique?

[rocketeer]

You didn't say if you had a deep sand bed or not (3.5 inches or more). It seems to me that people are having luck with shallow sand beds (1 inch) by not vacuuming but just stirring periodically.

I have been using a DBS for years. Twice now I started DSB systems that ran for about three years each. The first year or two, everything looks great. Then I get an unmanageable hair algae outbreak that I fight for the next two years. It's not much fun. Yeah, I do all of those things you usually hear about, RO/DI, water changes, phosban, snails and crabs, handfulls of hair, ... I now believe that a DSB turns into a toxic nightmare over time, at any depth.

I would think that vacuuming a DSB defeats it's purpose, denitrification (for most people). You're introducing oxygen to the deep layers and removing the anoxic (anaerobic?) bacteria you want. It's way too much work anyway.

Maybe if you start scheduling sections to be vacuumed in a rotation from the beginning it could work. I haven't really tried. Monitor nitrate levels if you do and let us know how it works.

Without a DSB, you need another denitrification strategy.

Jack