Cleaning a live sand bottom

h2omagnet

New member
I keep reading about vacuuming gravel when you do a water change to get the uneaten food. Will a siphon that they recommend for gravel, also work for a sand bottom? If not, what is the easiest way to clean the live sand on the bottom of the tank?
 
Dont vacuum the sand. You dont wanna stir up live sand for one, and for another, you'd be sucking out all the live stuff. I havent touched my sand in a year. Best way to keep it clean is to get a proper cleanup crew....I highly recommend lots of ceriths, maybe a fighting conch, or if you just wanna go all out on the sand, get a diamond goby...But if you get that goby, dont get the conch for sure, and dont get as many cerith snails...that goby will clear your sand of any algae w/in a week.
 
Got a diamond goby on Saturday and the little Bulldozer has cleaned up my sand so nice. Of course he has dug tunnels under all the rocks too but its fun to **** him off and refill the holes back up. Keeps him busy anyways.
 
I do the same thing with my goby's piles. I mess with everything except his 2 holes where he sleeps. He goes back to work making mountains pretty quickly afterwards. He does a pretty good job of picking up larger pieces of debris that fall off the rock and hides them inside a cave in the rock. He's so much fun to watch.
 
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=10454308#post10454308 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by scowiii
but its fun to **** him off and refill the holes back up. Keeps him busy anyways.

Ha...I do the same thing sometimes. I think it gives him something to do. :lol:
 
So I'm not the only one that does that to their goby? My banded goby comes out and floats vertically at me glaring afterwards.
 
did i mess up?

did i mess up?

maybe i should have seen this post earlier.
I did a water change today and used a siphon to clean my live sand bottom. I have not seen any level spikes so i hope i did not damage.
I assume I should be ok? Just dont do it again I hope is all i need.
Or do I need to do something to make up for the oversight?
 
I am new to the forum, and this is my first post. It has been quite some time since I have had a SW tank. I have always had FOWLR and will probably start that way this time as well. Eventually I will probably convert to a reef, but not until I move to a more permanent house.

Anyway, as I start thinking about my new SW setup, I have a question about gobies and DSB.

From what I remember, the thought used to be that you did not use gobies with DSB. The reasoning is that they eat your CUC and might disturb the anaerobic denitrification layer.

However, my more recent research has shown that a lot of people use gobies with their DSB. I understand that there are different gobies that will sift to different depths, and these may be what are being used. After all, there are pleanty of areas that will not be disturbed, and pockets of CUC that can replenish those that the goby eats. But perhaps this depends on if the setup is a FOWLR or Reef.

So I guess my questions are: 1) What are your thoughts on the above; 2) besides being generally cool, is it worth it to have a goby and risk having to restock your CUC more often; 3) what gobies do you recommend (if any).

I appreciate your answers, and I think this forum rocks (live rocks of course).

-Mav
 
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