Live Sand Questions

[Capnbob]

I just bought a tank from a friend and got it all moved today. It's a 46 saltwater with tons of live rock and live sand.

My question is, when cleaning the tank, should I vacuum the gunk out of the live sand like you would do with gravel in a freshwater? He didn't even have a vacuum and the sand's looking really gross. Is this normal?

Any help is appreciated,
Bobby

 

[J-Money]

if you start trying to clean the sand like gravel you will end up sucking all the sand up . i would start off with a good size cleaning crew to start cleaning it all up, but if the water quality is horrible and you have to change it you're going to wanna lightly go over the sand with the "vacuum". just stirring up whatever is up top. good luck

 

[steelhealr]

Hi...if you got the tank empty of livestock, ie, no fish or corals, you could gravel vac the entire bed and just replace any that is lost, or stir up the bed and change out the water..but...a bit more messy and you'd have to turkey baste off anything settled. I think vac'ing is a good idea...a good cleanup crew is a good rec also. SH