What will keep my sand pristine?

[Saltyllama]

Forgot to mention I also have a 5 inch dragon goby that REALLY keeps my sand spotless. Just expect the bottom 5 inches of your rock to have sand sifted onto it. I think it makes it look more natural.

 

[CRASHJT]

A friend bought a diamond goby and he cleaned his entire 120 sb in a week, then he committed suicide over the back.

I just placed a order for one cause I have been fighting some cyano. Hopefully he won't make too much of a mess.

Yeah they due tend to be suicide jumpers :sad1:

 

[greech]

Blue dot sea hare (Bursatella leachii) if you can find one. A complete diatom/algae eating machine for your sand bed. Main concern is powerheads.

Forgot to add that I have 2 conchs and a tiger cucumber in my 40 breeder now and they do a pretty good job too but they only clean at night.

 

[Toddrtrex]

I siphon my sand weekly with a gravel cleaner while doing a water change. It's as clean as the day I put it in there.

That is exactly what I do too. Do it on all 3 of my tanks (( all have shallow sandbeds )), and have been doing it that way since '92.

 

[sbaddley]

I don't think I have a deep enough bed for a sand sifting star, it would starve I'm pretty sure.

This is not an algae growth problem, I am just talking about detritus settling on the sand bed.

How deep of a sand bed is needed for a cucumber?

Who has a diamond goby and how often are you blowing sand off of the corals and rocks?

Love my Diamond Goby. It keeps my sand clean and is very entertaining to watch--it's my favorite fish. The only drawback is that I have to un-bury my feather duster every so often.

 

[Drewbaby]

How deep is your sandbed. Shallow is a vague term when you think deep means 4" or 5" +. I have a sandsifting star in my 55 and only have like 2 1/2 inches of sand and he's fat and happy

 

[DT's_Reef]

I agree with the other poster who recommend vacuuming the sand during regular water changes. This has worked the best for me.

My shallow sand bed is 1/4"-1" thick (depending on location).

I would like to go bare-bottomed, but the sand looks too good.

 

[Fishamatank]

1" is the depth of my sand bed, it's pretty shallow.
I guess I'll just have to start vacuuming during my WC's.

 

[ireefn]

I agree with the good flow response. Since I added the vortechs to my tank worries have been over.

 

[tang56]

I siphon my sand weekly with a gravel cleaner while doing a water change. It's as clean as the day I put it in there.

how do you do this with out sucking up all the sand?

 

[Drewbaby]

It takes practice with really fine grain sand because it's so light

 

[cpittmx]

A friend bought a diamond goby and he cleaned his entire 120 sb in a week, then he committed suicide over the back.

I just placed a order for one cause I have been fighting some cyano. Hopefully he won't make too much of a mess.

That sounds familiar! I had a diamond goby for a couple weeks he was full time cleaning sand...then went carpet surfing.

 

[Dadekster]

Surface of my sand is pretty white except for two corner spots which keep a light coating of diatoms. I have two vortechs so pretty good undertow. I have 2 conchs, a black cucumber, tigertail, jester goby and a yellow watchman plus several nass. snails. The black cucumber by far is the most prolific sand cleaner followed by the conches and then the tigertail. The jester has a small mouth but is always sifting small amounts. The watchman is just plain lazy and I rarely see him sifting, but when he does he stays low and doesn't get it anywhere. I also have an eng goby, he moves tons of sand, but only from under rocks. What is nice about that though is that due to his constant digging and building tunnels I think I get decent flow even under the biggest rocks.

 

[elegance coral]

how do you do this with out sucking up all the sand?

http://www.google.com/products/cata...ct=result&resnum=3&ved=0CBYQ8wIwAg#ps-sellers