Keeping Your Sand Clean

[Bacchus_fl]

What do you guys use to keep your sand clean?

I have 4 Cucumbers, and a couple gobies that sift the sand but I still seem to have brown sand by the end of every day. It is clean in the morning but turns brown after about 2 hours of the light cycle.

Looking for suggestions on how to correct this.

Thanks,

Jason

 

[chrisstie]

I would try a little florida fighting conch... I think that is their name. They stay relatively little and are like a little vacuum for the sand.

4 cukes and you have diatoms or is it a slimey film like an algae?

Also try some of the cortez red legged hermits and maybe a scarlet hermit. they are good at picking at that stuff too.

Nassarius will burrow under your sand but usually knock it around when they surface to scavenge.. more of a mix up the sand than eat the stuff off the sand though

Hope this helps

 

[waterfaller1]

Take out the sandsifting gobies, they are causing more harm than good. They eat the beneficial organisms from your sandbed. I use hermits, two cukes, two conchs, nassarius snails, high flow & water changes to keep my sand clean. Light brown sounds like diatoms. Are you doing regular water changes? Have you checked the TDS of your RO/DI? When is the last time you changed your filters on the RO/DI? Light bulbs due to be changed? Adequate flow? Protein skimmer working good? What is your reading for PO4 and NO3?

 

[Bacchus_fl]

I already have a ton of hermits and nassarius as well as the 4 cucumbers. My flow is about as strong as it could be without blowing around my sand. I also do water changes every 2 to 4 weeks.

I'm not worried about the gobies, they are only about an inch long in a 125 gallon tank.

The algea isn't a slime it is more of the surface sand turning brown. I can blow it around or mix it up and it goes away for a couple hours and then it's back.

I will try the conchs though.

Any other suggestions?

Thanks,

J