Sand question

[VitalApparatus]

My reef is coming up on 6 months.Ive been through diatoms and cyano and now Im pretty much stabilized but Ive still got dirty looking sand.Ive 5 turbos whos main goal I think is to knock down as many frags each night as possible, they dont touch the substrate.Are there some CUC members who would help me clean up the sand?

 

[ihavtats29]

nass. snails , sand sifting stars , cucumbers will stir the sand up for you

 

[OneReef]

Also a Diamond Goby will help (fish), but may keep some silt floating in your water column alot.

 

[VitalApparatus]

Thanks Jim and Jay!

 

[powerkit]

personally, I'd stay away from the sleeper gobies...mho, they can be difficult to keep alive, and some of them make a terrible mess.
I like conchs and burrowing snails like the nassarius and brown blotch. Cucumbers are awesome! Just make sure its a sandsifting one, if thats what you want it for.

 

[neuroslicer]

I've found golden head sleeper gobies much easier to maintain than the diamond watchman or orange spotted gobies, and they do a nice job of working the sand bed... but if you've got any LPS directly on the sandbed they might get covered a bit... I have a really big chalice that I had to put on a rock to keep it from getting too much sand scatter from the goby. My cleaner crew (125 gal tank) is 75 blue legged hermits, 25 red legged hermits, 50 turbo snails, 75 nassarius snails, two tiger tail sea cucumbers, and the golden head sleeper goby. They take care of algae and detritus very well. I'm a big fan of a full cleaner crew... if you've got detritus problems or algal problems and you don't have a cleaner crew, you're really not helping matters any.

 

[MrRyanT]

I have a diamond goby in my tank that eats well and appears healthy. I think the key to success with a diamond goby is finding one that will eat what you feed, or having enough of what it wants to eat in the tank. I was unsuccessful with one before. I read somewhere to try feeding sinking pellet food, that's what I've done so far(nearly a year) with my current diamond goby. I haven't found any critter that's better at keeping the sand bed clean, but you do have to deal with a bit of sand "clutter." The first 3 or 4 days is a sand storm pretty much, but then it all settles down. I do also have a couple of nassarius snails, but IMO they don't do near as much to keep the sand bed clean as the goby.

 

[VitalApparatus]

Well Im going with a bunch of nass snails and brown blotchs.Ive got a goby that I never see already (orange spot)..
Thanks for all the help as usual!

 

[yerdaddy]

i have sand question too....

i have sand question too....

my sand is pretty ugly, is it just the nature of the beast or is something wrong? been looking at posts, it doesn't look like its bad stuff as described in other tanks, like the cyano and stuff like that , just wondering
ck my pics to see what i am talking about

29 g stock biocube - 6 mos old

 

[VitalApparatus]

Looks like the remnants of diatoms and cyano.How long has your tank been up?