Do I Clean The Live Sand In My Tank With A Gravel Cleaner?

[bollands]

well do i?

 

[Alex Brown]

i have never bothered, however when im doing a water change i just stir the bottom to get the crap floating about and syphon it out.

 

[ben1987]

i sometimes do mine. When i do i get a bucket, start a slow siphon and let the water flow through some floss so it collects the crap. Then just add the water back to teh tank.

 

[johnnyjtaylor]

Yes do it when your doing a water change, I also give my live rock a hoover now and then aswell. The best place for the crap is out of the tank, so go for it.

Johnny

 

[bollands]

wouldnt this loose the bacteria in it?

 

[-Nemo-]

Haven't touched my sand in two years, that's what the goby is for.

 

[kj23502]

I'm under the impression that with the right CUC you don't need to do anything w/the sand on bottom. Kinda like what ^ said about the goby. There are snails that go through, stir up and eat stuff also.

 

[TigerIssey]

I don't stir the sand at all, as KJ said that is what the CUC is for, my snails do that for me, however I do hover it over the sand and get any bits that are on the surface. Just prefer the cleaner look on top that is all really.

 

[johnnyjtaylor]

Bollands,

Crap will build up in your sand, its better out than in,syphoning also stirs the sand up,which is good.

Syphoning/hoovering isn't going to suck out all the bacteria from your sand and rock(bacteria are quite good at clinging on!!) .

Your CUC will not completely clean your sand, after all they crap too and theres stuff they don't eat.

If you add kalkwasser you will want to move your sand around a bit or you may find it slowly turns into one big grain.

Try syphonng a small area and see what you get out(I get nasty cloudy muck, which I don't want hanging around in my tank After all is said and done its up to you whether you do it or not,it may not be critical to do it but if I were you I would and it definately won't hurt.

I do mine every other water change(bi-weekly W/C).

Johnny

 

[SkiFletch]

I also vaccum my sand when cleaning. Pretty much agree with everything Johnny said, no problems with removing bacteria

 

[STD]

I don't bother cleaning mine but I only have about 1/2" of sand

How deep is yours?

If yours is deeper I would give it a regular clean

A friend has recently had a wipeout after stirring up his sandbed that he hadn't touched for ages

 

[ben1987]

having a sand bed for several years can lead to old tank syndrome, high nitrates, ammonia, leaching of all kinda os nasties. Best to stil it up and clean it occasionally. Some of the people that run the most amazing tanks replace their sand every 18-24 months