How do I keep my sand bed clean?

[ReeferMO85]

I have a black and white perc. paired with a perc. I also have a scarlet skunk shrimp, 20 dwarf hermit crabs, and ten astraea snails. I feed my tank twice a day with a mixture of flake, frozen brine shrimp, and a frozen cube,with a mixture of various tropical fish foods.

My problem is that I love my white live sand bed, it's Fiji pink live sand, but I can't keep it clean. There is always left over food or other brownish spots underneath the sand.

What can I do to keep it clean? Should I get more hermit crabs? I was thinking about getting a starfish. How can I clean the sand and keep it white?

Thanks for the help!

 

[kellyandcarrie]

I would try not feeding the tank more than your clean up crew can clean up.

 

[Sk8r]

You're feeding too much, it looks to be. I'd worry giving my 52 gallon a whole cube plus the other---unless those clowns are in the 3" ballpark.

Now, as to what can help clean your sand, I can recommend bristleworms [many], nassarius snails [2] and a conch [1]. That way anything that hits the sand will go finer and finer, so the skimmer can pick it up.

 

[818]

Meh..Feed harder skim harder its as easy as that!

Or get your self a Diamnd Goby they are cool fish and keep your sand oxyginated.

Sam

 

[ReeferMO85]

My clowns are 2'' and 1.5'', it seems like they are always hungry and looking for food, that's why I feed them so much. I also thought that bristleworms were a bad thing to have?

 

[ReeferMO85]

Will a skimmer get all the stuff off the sandbed? What kind would you recommend? I have a 29 gal. now but I am making plans to trade up to a 90 gal. in a year, so all the new equipment I buy now, in reality is for the 90 gal. tank.

 

[818]

I wouldnt get a conch. They need an established sand bed. And they need a good amount of area.


nassarius snails are ok, but they seem to reproduce more in ones tank then clean the tank.

How is your flow in the tank? There are suppose to be no deadspots for detritus to settle.

Sam

 

[818]

Skimmers remove organic waste from the water. Good flow, and a good clean up crew I find myself feeding my tank heavily everyday.

This is my 110g skimmerless since the day it started cycling.

 

[ReeferMO85]

I have a Fluval 205 right now and the only flow comes from the return tube, which is pretty strong but it doesn't circulate the stuff on the bottom so well. I am trying to save money for my new tank and I am trying to learn how the sump and the refugium work because from researching that seems to be the way to go.

 

[ReeferMO85]

Any advice where I can get some good tips/advice on setting up a sump and refugium. Nice tank by the way. How are your rocks anchored? No skimmer really? The pvc pipes, are they producing flow or are they just supporting the rocks?

 

[818]

Canisters are old school.

A site and a man I look up to.

www.melevsreef.com

He has all types of sump, purposes for them, tool on how to build.

Sam

 

[818]

Thanks..Yep its skimmerless.. I have 3 wrasse, flame angel, 2 clowns 2 tangs,mandarin goby, SPS,Anemones, softies, florida ricordeas and so on....


pvc pipes are for the arch. It will later turn purple covered in corraline.

 

[Sk8r]

Bristleworms won't hurt fish [unless the fish bites them: I have an idiot firefish who has had this lesson twice---but the spines fall off in about 48 hours] and they won't hurt corals at all. Our skin---they're about like a run-in with a cactus, annoying, but not too bad.

I'll tell you where they're good: I have some fairly big ones, as well as the small. [10 inches]. I had a mega snail die jammed into the far recesses of the rock. Couldn't get him out and he massed like a large cocktail shrimp. I was afraid of an ammonia spike, so I put in carbon, etc.

Needn't have bothered. The worms got there that night and by morning that shell was glistening clean---and there was no spike at all.

They clean where nothing else can reach, and if you ever do need them, they're hard to beat. They'll also eat up all the loose food and poo that blows about.

 

[Amphiprion]

Good polychaete diversity goes a long way in keeping sandbeds running well. For your tank, you may want to look into the various Cerithid snails.