vacuuming a shallow sand bed

[nitro069]

Hey all, I used to vacuum my sand bed in my old tank but haven't done it since i got my new one. it is a shollow sand bed and i have 1 engineer goby in there that seems to cycle the sand under the rocks quite regularly. i was wondering what what you guys do to maintain your shallow sand bed and any negative effects you have noticed buy either doing or not doing it.

 

[Duke]

I'm almost 2 years in and haven't touched my shallow sand bed. I often wondered the same as u.

 

[harleymike]

I vacume mine, but only lightly and not everytime. I just did a water change tonight and vacumed the sand.
I only skim the surface, but use a plastic stick too stir it up and clean up any junk in it.
I dont have any creatures too stir it up, hopeing too get some soon.
mike

 

[phi delt reefer]

I got two conches and a bunch of Narisuss (sp?)snails

My power head seems to stir it up enough but I do siphon crap off it during wc

 

[Jewel]

That's something i have never done but I think its ok just not all at once, then again my sand bed is always 3 inches not really shallow at all

 

[Victoss]

My sand bed looks like a war zone thanks to my orange diamond goby so I've never really needed to clean it. (Although I'm not recommending one if you enjoy corals on the sand )

 

[reefin]

I use to vacuum my SSB everytime I did a water change just the very top of it just let the vaccum skim over. That was in my 60 gallon. Now in my 90 is a different story. I let all the little critters do it and so far so good. 

 

[spyd]

I don't vacuum it at all. I do stir it up though quite frequently. I use a wooden spoon and just go to ton on it. Then, I add some Coral Snow at that time as some people see good results in cyano prevention.