To vacuum sandbed or not

Should one vacuum a shallow sandbed of 2" and under or just sift it and syphon the stuff out?

 

I just stir mine every week or so.

 

How about when ridding the tank of algae?

 

I used to vaccum the top layer of my SSB every week I did my water change. The last 2 months I stopped messing with the sand bed completely and I am amazed at how clean my sand bed was after a month of looking dirty. I'm on the fence about it but so far the less I disturb the sand bed, the better it looks.​

 

I vaccum mine every week during water changes.

In fact I am glad you brought this up. After a year in a half of water changes and vaccum of the sand bed, I have lost quite a bit of sand (unintentional). I was thinking of adding sand to the existing. I want to go all black.

Is it okay to add new sand to and exsting bed?

 

Well its a debate and one I have with myself as well.

I vacuum mine on all water changes and tons of stuff comes out, enough that no cuc would get rid of. I don't lose sand though.

My concern is, will it spread any cyano, diatoms etc?

 

to my (limited) knowledge and understand (also limited), a lot depends on the actual depth of the sand bed. Iv read anything under 5 inches can be safely "disturbed"/cleaned anything thicker and you risk releasing toxins all at once back in the water column with detrimental effects.

I personally don't disturb my sand bed

 

I have a Diamond Watchman Goby that sifts and moves all my sand around for me. He is always kicking things up into the water column and it gets pulled into the over flow and into the skimmer. Plus he keeps the sand nice and white. I still vacuum the stand about every other water change. Mainly to get it out of the holes he has filled in and to get it from behind the rock work where he likes to take it. I do loose a little sand every now and then, but nothing to bad.