Keeping Sand Clean

[ChemE]

OK, I'm canvasing for ideas. I hate my sand looking dirty a lot. This was always a problem in the 55 and I'm setting it back up tonight. What does everyone do to keep their sand from being covered in brown diatom? We started with 50 snail and 50 hermits but they did a pretty poor job at best. I'd like to get this dialed in before I set the 190 up.

Thanks all and I'll see most of you Saturday.

 

[lcashman]

I use sand sifting stars and an engineer goby.
I know that the goby doesn't help the life in the sand bed, but I think they are cool.

Anyways, that's my 2 cents.

 

[ahenson]

I'd get a fighting conch, only one though. They take care of the sand, anything that is a sand sifter is eating the animals in your sand bed.

 

[ChemE]

Ok, I should have mentioned this initially but we have a mandarin goby. Now when we first got him, I thought that pods lived in the sand but now I understand that they live in the rock. So the question becomes is there any fauna in the sand bed which I can't do without? Will the sand sifting stars eventually starve to death if they wipe out the critters in the sand bed?

 

[joelsvan]

The prob with all those snails and hermits is there poop.(dirty sand? or poopy sand?) Just go pick up a few colorful alge eating fish, and some sand sifter fish. And make sure you have good warer flow. Maby a few reef safe crabs. Just try to mix things up a bit, insted of getting a whole bunch of the same alge eater. It makes for a more diverse looking tank, and theres better odds that one of the different alge eaters will eat more than others.

 

[andycook]

I keep my sand clean by not having any.

 

[Sloeber]

after the initial 6 month break-in period you shouldnt have anything on the sandbed. i would look towards correcting excess nutrients in the water if you continued to get diatom growth on the sand after 6 months.

if you add an animal to eat the unsightly growths, the waste these animals create will merely feed more of the growth you are trying to remove.

although adding animals seems like a good idea, and often times the easy solution, animals in our aquarium cannot do the single most important part of animal husbandry - nutrient export.

 

[brad23]

I had this problem for a while, the stuff was everywhere on the sand bed and then it just went away. Give it time.

 

[ChemE]

I suspect the culprit was a somewhat weak DIY CC airstone skimmer. The next skimmer will be neither weak nor airstone. Right now I'm leaning towards 8"x30" acrylic tube and an Aquabee 2001. As Henry said, nutrient export was almost certainly to blame since I could never get the trates much lower than 20 ppm with that skimmer.

I could always buy a H&S or Deltec but that isn't nearly enough fun. I'd rather Destroy It Yourself.

 

[dcombs44]

Ideas for sand cleaners

 

[Biggie]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=7821888#post7821888 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by andycook
I keep my sand clean by not having any.

Same here.
Question for another BB tank owner. You have any problems keeping wrasses? Got a yellow that just lays on the bottom now instead of burrowing in the sand I was thinking of making an acylic tray fill it with sand like his own little private sand bed

 

[Benny Z]

i keep a fairy wrasse in my 29g bb. it's not a burrowing wrasse...it hides in the rocks and spins a mucus coccoon around itself after lights-out.

+1 for bb!!!

when detritus forms on the bottom of the tank, i simply put a 100-micron filter sock over my overflow outlets in the sump and go to town blowing the detrius off the bottom with a turkey baster.

sand is a pita in every way possible ime.

 

[Biggie]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=7879112#post7879112 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Benny Z
i keep a fairy wrasse in my 29g bb. it's not a burrowing wrasse...it hides in the rocks and spins a mucus coccoon around itself after lights-out.

+1 for bb!!!

when detritus forms on the bottom of the tank, i simply put a 100-micron filter sock over my overflow outlets in the sump and go to town blowing the detrius off the bottom with a turkey baster.

sand is a pita in every way possible ime.

I moreless gravitated towatds the BB life by attrition. Meaning I couldnt dedicate the time to sand that I should have so I got interested in less maintance. Yea yea lazy I know I can here the sighs. Not really it was eitheir cut the maintance down or get out of the hobby so BB is what keeps me in this..
I just feel bad the little yellow wrasse is just laying there under a rock like its dead in this little pile of loose silt that used to be sand. I wanna make him a little bed to sleep in lol... Then when it needs cleaning I just lift out the tray and dump it out and add new. Might work might not but hes a good fish he deserves it. Never messes with anything.