Keeping the sand clean...

[DanEnglish]

What do you all do in terms of keeping the sand (surface) looking clean in your fish only setups? I have a reef and a fish only, plumbed together, and the reef is really clean and the fish only has algae and so forth on the sand. In the reef the hermits and snails take care of this, but they will get eaten in the other tank. I was considering a goatfish or large (yellow head sleeper?) goby to keep the sandbed clean. Any ideas?

 

[Nathan.Titulaer]

I used nassarious snails to stir the sand bed. They where smart enough to not get eaten, as for algae you may have a nutrient load issue or not enough flow to prevent the waste from settling on the sand.

 

[NewbyReefer]

What do you all do in terms of keeping the sand (surface) looking clean in your fish only setups? I have a reef and a fish only, plumbed together, and the reef is really clean and the fish only has algae and so forth on the sand. In the reef the hermits and snails take care of this, but they will get eaten in the other tank. I was considering a goatfish or large (yellow head sleeper?) goby to keep the sandbed clean. Any ideas?

What type of fish are in the FOWLR?

 

[Toddrtrex]

How deep is your sandbed?

All 3 of my tanks (( reef tanks )) have shallow sandbeds (( 2 inches at most )) and I "gravel vac" them with each weekly water change.

 

[guruduck]

I keep a green brittle star and couple nassarious snails. They work after dark though.
Sand is clean as brand new.

Guruduck

 

[TitanTV]

I'd say since your tanks are plumbed together your fish only is kinda working like a fuge. You have a few options:

Either reduce the light to the fish only and the algae will die but this doesn't get rid of the nitrate or whatever the algae is growing on. It might spread to your reef tank and overwhelm the clean up crew.

Or you can set up an algae filter/fuge to eat the nutrients.