How can keep my sand clean?

[Vorog]

I have noticed areas on my sand bed that have algae covering it. Now it's not diatoms nor it is cyano. I will take a picture later tonight. I had a sand sifting goby that did a great job keeping it bright white. However, he found the small hole in the top screen where my HoB skimmer return is and jumped right out . I don't want to gravel vac the sand bed, just want the white shimmering look again. Any ideas? Thanks!

 

[nitr8]

I am currently going through the same thing. I don't want a sand sifting fish due to the 85x turnover rate in my tank. Every mouthful would turn the tank into a snow globe. I presented my dilemma to one of the employees at Living Reef in Orlando and he showed me their display tank with a pure white sand bed. He said their tank would have the same problem as ours if it weren't for the tiger conchs. I have a 90g tank (3x2x2) and he recommended 4-5 of these snails. Unfortunately they didn't have any for sale at the time and I've been having a hard time finding some. May have to order them if I don't find some soon. Hope this helps.

 

[trialanderror]

+1 for tiger conchs or fighting conchs

Ocean Direct in Longwood has few conchs last weekend.

 

[aguila88psi]

You can also lightly blast the sand with a turkey baster every few days, I like to do it a few hours before I change out my filter sock

 

[shibby1]

You can also lightly blast the sand with a turkey baster every few days, I like to do it a few hours before I change out my filter sock

+1 I always stir up my sand before changing the sock.

 

[C4DC]

I manually remove the thick stuff if there is any and turkey baste as well.

 

[mark.red]

Tiger conch

 

[snake1]

I would fix the hole and get a diamond goby mine has been the best fish i have ever purchased he keeps the sand perfect i have bahama ollite really fine grand sand... I had just seen some at FAOIS Saturday

 

[Vorog]

My sand is cleaning up nicely. I did light shots with the turkey baster, also I put some GFO in a media bag, and placed it in my HOB filter. So far my algae is fading away. *knocks on wood*. Thank you guys for the idea!

 

[aguila88psi]

No problem, blast the rocks once a week as well to keep detritus and other stuff from building up

 

[Vorog]

Since I have put in a wave maker, a lot of stuff has cleared up on the rocks. But I'll give it a try on the sides that don't get as much flow!