Do you vacuum the substrate?! Do I need to?!

[FreshyFresh]

If it's a planted tank and/or you have Malaysian trumpet snails, I wouldn't touch the sand or any substrate for that matter.

If you have to aggressively vacuum substrate, I couldn't imagine having anything other than a chunky gravel substrate. It's impossible to just waive the vacuum and not draw up sand. I know I was never able to develop that skill.

 

[duanes]

Mulm and crud tend to be places where pathogenetic bacteria like Saprolegnia, columnaris and other opportunistic ideas carrying phages can proliferate, and become problematic for cichlids.
I use pool filter sand, and because of its density, it hardly ever makes it all the way up the tube,
and as others have said, a sweep near the top of the substrate can be enough. I find detritus has a harder time working its way deep into sand, unlike it does in gravel.

 

[Coryloach]

I think it very much depends on the tank set up. I've been keeping bottom feeders and also shrimp and snails for years...no need to siphon the substrate in such tanks. In a one fish only tank, I think you'd have to remove all that settles over the sand because you get no natural help. There's no need to stir up the sand ever.

Just swirl the siphon over to remove the detritus bits. I think stirring the sand is completely unnecessary.....speaking from experience...The key is to make the filter flow reach the bottom of the tank, all areas of the substrate. The substrate then(due to proper oxygenation) acts as an additional powerful bio filter.

Other than that I always recommend keeping dwarf shrimp if possible as they are excellent substrate and detritus eaters/shredders...but if not shrimp(because they get wiped out by most big fish) try snails, pond snails, malaysian trumpet snails and ramshorn snails. They are excellent addition if surviving the fish. They'll deal with food/detritus excess/algae (bar ramshorns who are more of an algae eater), even if it means an oubreak of snails. But an outbreak of snails(or even detritus worms if one has them in their tanks) is better than an outbreak of harmful bacteria that tries to do the same as snails/worms due to the lack of snails or similar higher creature...and can be pathogenic.










Sand doesn't let much go in between the grains, you just need to loosely remove what gathers at the top..

 

[philipraposo1982]

Shrimp with a green terror.. lol

Can you say snack time?

 

[Coryloach]

Shrimp with a green terror.. lol

Can you say snack time?

I know...I mentioned it as a general option with a warning.....You'd be surprised of the skill of these little shrimp....mine live in the prefilter sponges of the external fitlers...inside the holes of the coarse sponges...Even a green terror won't completely wipe them out if you let the shrimp population establish first for 5-6 months and provide lots of other hiding places for them afterwards...they breed as well as snails...

 

[skjl47]

Hello; I did this before. I would keep a supply of cleaned substrate the same as that in a tank stored in a container. During a WC The tank substrate is siphoned out with the water into a large bucket. Fresh cleaned substrate from the storage container replaces that siphoned out of the tank.
After a few WC's there is enough dirty tank substrate to make it worth a cleaning and then it goes into the storage container with the other clean substrate. This cycle is repeated potentially forever if you wish.
I suspect you will be surprised about how much stuff accumulates in a substrate.
I would do only a portion of the substrate at each WC and move to a different part at the next WC.
Good luck