The bottom of my tank is sand. When I try to vacuum it the sand is lifted and sucked up along with the water etc. I have been doing water changes by siphoning off just water & any unwanted stuff I see on the rocks. Am I suppose to vacuum the sand? If so how do I stop it from passing through the vacuum head & into the hose. Thanks in advance for your help.:D
Water change / Vacuuming sand?
- Thread starter AquaMom
- Start date
marcah
Reef enthusiast
One thing I never do is vacuum the sand .. Just get some sandsifting snails like nass snails they will take care of the stirring of the sand,, there are also fish that will help keep it stirred.. the top any snails, crabs and fish will graze on what grows there..
Thanks for the reply. I do have a bunch of Nass Snails, hermit crabs, & an orange spotted sand sifting goby. Overall the sand looks clean but I did see a layer of algae in areas against the glass. Not sure if that’s normal but I scraped it away last night so I’ll she what happens. Thanks again!
Bifferwine
I am a girl
Stirring up the sand can release gunk into the water. If you have sand-stirring snails (which you do), they keep it turned over little by little and it won't impact the water quality. If you stir it yourself, you may be stirring up too much at a time and messing up your water. When people vacuum the sand, they generally do it in small sections every week; not all at once. For most tanks, vacuuming the sand is not necessary and probably shouldn't be done because it's not worth risking messing up the water. If you have algae on the sand that you want to remove, that's another story -- and you may find your best bet is to suck it up using a turkey baster.
