Sand Cleaning?

[fartman]

Whats the best way to clean my sand during water changes? My sands on the fine side and Im not sure whats the proper way of performing the cleaning.

 

[tcollins]

I'd be interested to read some success stories as I suffer the same fate. I've read where some members use a pump/hose to draw water out and return it to their sump through a sock. I bought a diamond goby this weekend to help sift the sand and he's doing a really, really, really good job of sifting, I have dust over everything. I'm blowing it off with a baster, as best I can, I will have to do something this weekend to remove what I can.

 

[pooh1989]

Get some nassarius snails. They do a fantastic job of keeping the sand bed nice and stirred up. I never do anything to my sand bed when I do a water change. Don't want to stir it up and let stuff out that should be there. Tongan fighting conch are very good also. Don't get a sand sifting sea star whatever you do. They just die and eat everything good in your tank. I have no experence with sea cucumbers so can't comment on them.

~~Ange

 

[fartman]

thats an interesting concept with the pump! I was wondering about the goby though Ive heard of sand storms and Id rather avoid that. Wondering if certain gobys do better jobs then others?! Im knew at this and constantly running into new issues along the way but its still alot of fun to watch all thats going on in the tank. Id just wish my hermets would get along better..lol

 

[pooh1989]

The Diamond back goby was my favorite fish . Don't know why he died, but was very sad when he did. He did a great job with the sand also, but I also didn't like the way he "rearranged" my tank every day. He probably died because I would undo everything he did. He hated this one rock so much every day when I would come home from work he would have it totally covered in sand. This went on for about a month. I would uncover it, he would cover it. Uggg...

I like the snails better. Keep the sand stirred up and don't rearrange it all the time.

~~Ange

 

[fartman]

thanx pooh and tcollins. Do the Narrarius snails go by a "common name" or are they always refered to as Narrarius?

 

[fartman]

Nassarius was how I meant to spell it, not narrarius.

 

[pooh1989]

That is their common name. You don't see them until it's feeding time, than watch out. The will take care of anything that lands on the bottom.
~~Ange

 

[SquidHC]

IMHO vaccuming your sand is a bad idea. Lots of people swear by it but I wouldnt do it. When vaccuming your not only sucking up all the bad stuff but your also taking out any inverts and other such thing living in your sand.You can do it, but your destroying one part of your mini ecosystem if you do.

 

[fartman]

thanx squid, Im wondering if the fine sand was a bad idea. I would deffinately prefer not to vacume the sand if given a choice of options.

 

[tcollins]

I may just use the pump to pull out what I can get to float off of my rocks. As busy as the goby is, he'll probably have the top 1/2" to 3/4" clean in a couple of weeks. This could be temporary, at least I hope so.