Too Vaccum or not to vaccum

[Whoyah]

I went to my second reef club tonight. I mentioned to the host that I vacuum my gravel and he gave me look like . He recommended that I stop it immediately. He says that I am pulling out the good stuff and messing up my sand bed. So I am a little puzzled at this point. Should I be vacuuming or not?

A little background info. I have a 3 inch sand bed over a plenum (a water pocket). I don't have any real sand stirrers. I am may purchase a tiger tail soon. The sand I have is larger than southdown, more like salt on large pretzel. I started vacuum at the beginning of the summer. I only vacuum the top inch of sand and only front floor which is probably 1/5 or less of the tank. When I first started the waste water was like chocolate milk color. Now it is pretty minimal. The sand looks a ton better after I vacuum.

Any thoughts???

[Reptoreef]

Just stir about 1/2" down in the front while performing a waterchange or I even do it every once in a while to help feed the filter feeders. IMO dirty sand is healthy sand. A cuke should take care of things, but stirring the sb about 1/2"(not much more) is still a good thing weekly(in the front)... and when doing a water change. I have 3 cukes in my display and still do stir the sand bed. All JMO, though.

Repto

[jerryc]

I take my hand and mix the top 1'' in front i have 5'' to 6 '' of sand

[peregrinus]

yep just stir the top layer.

[dakar]

Angel has been vaccuming the top layer of sand in our 55 every couple of weeks or so, seems to need it a little more often now that all of the fish have been moved to a hosp tank, the goby's and blennies aren't there to help the one cuke in there now, guess we need a couple more cukes for a spell, another 4 weeks before the fish can be moved back in.

But to no ill effects, except maybe a few pods being taken out here and there. She uses one of those battery powered jobbers with a fine mesh collection bag on it, works great and sure makes the the sand and whole tank look way too clean.

[Reef_Angel]

I don't dig into the sand bed though. Have you ever wondered why this Mod doesn't post all that often? I'm busy chasing after Dakar when he's doing all his experiments and breaking stuff....especially glass. Anyway, I just dust the sand surface....especially when Dakar dumps about a 1/2 cup of fish food into the tank by accident when there's absolutely nothing in the tank that can eat it. I had no choice but to vacuum for quite awhile. I'd think I got it all, and the next day a whole new crop would float to the front. Until we get fish back in the tank, I need the help of the vacuum and my cucumber appreciates a little extra help to. I think he's overwhelmed!!

[dakar]

Hey..... I only did that once... and stuff was hungry!!!!

[davejnz]

I vacuum my SSB with every waterchange in my 30 but my SB is only 1/2" .Dont do any stirring or vacuuming in my 40 w/DSB,my clowns do a good job of digging it up.

[Renee]

I know a few people that think disturbing anything at all is bad. One person in particular won't put his hands in the tank, won't disturb a snail, and would give you that look if he heard you even think of vaccuuming your sand bed. But I think anything in moderation is good. We had a lecturer talk about sand beds, and he said that you'll have anaerobic areas in your sand bed, which according to him is a bad thing but is natural. So bristle worms, sand sifting sea stars, cukes, sifting gobies, snails, hermits all stir it up somewhat. I don't see what it would hurt to gently vaccuum.

[dakar]

That's my thoughts as well... our scooter blenny digs himself some pretty deep holes to bury himself in, between the engineer goby taking huge mouthfulls, and the clowns stirring things up, a light vaccuming is the least of our worries, only about a 2" sandbed at the deepest part, which gets shifted around quite frequently.