My preference is to NOT vacuum the substrate in reef setups...many
beneficial organisms will be destroyed/removed. If your substrate is of a
fine material and you have good strong flow it should be of little concern
as detritus should stay in suspension long enough to either be eaten, or
removed by your filtration system - Wetwebmedia.com

Kurt, you really should read all the info on this site. It mostly all FAQ.
AND IT'S THE BEST ONE OUT THERE. Read Read Read and when you think you're
done read some more.
This is where I got 90% of my info when I started AND I STILL FREQUENT IT.

To clean the substrate in my tank, because I do have 1 or 2 dead areas.
I get my handy dandy turkey baster and blow off all the corals, rocks and
sand in the dead areas.
I place a fine filter pad in my over flow. It turns a nice shade of poop in
15 minutes.

No Vacuuming for you today !


"KurtG" wrote in message
. ..
It's odd. I bought two plastic trash cans of the same size. I mix salt
water in one, and then siphon off water into the second of the same
amount. But, when I refill, I'm always 2-3 gallons short?

I spent some time vacuuming the sand. Man, it's amazing the amount of
crap (literally) that I pulled up. I'm way under my livestock limit, but
there's no lack of detritus.

Just sharing...

--Kurt