A different sand question

[jrnannery]

How do you guys maintain your sand? What do you do to it, and/ or what critters do you have messing with it?

[Southern Flame]

Sand sifters stars some shrimp goby's but careful what u add some critters might eat things u wanna keep research is key

[Scutterborn]

I keep nassarius snails.


- Ben -

[jburgos26]

Tiger conch... does a good job of sifting the sand and cleans up diatoms.

[allan]

I got a queen fighting conch. Big thing that moves about all day. Buries itself at night... Or maybe that's backwards.

Also have a dragon goby that I swear goes out of its way to deposit sand over everything.


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[jrnannery]

So far its all animals...what about vacuuming the sand bed, or anything like that?

[Southern Flame]

You can but depending on how deep ur sand is or if u have dead spots u could release h2s and kill ur tank

[Big_Pun]

I vacuum my sand bed where I can reach. helps keep cyano down and other levels down. amazing the stuff that comes up

[The_wolfeman]

I personally think both animals and human interaction are essential. The animals just keep it tidy in between your deep cleaning (vacuuming) which in my opinion should happen every water change. Just take it slow the first time if you've never done it before because like southern flame said it is possible to release toxins that have built up over time.

[reefreak]

I use nassarius snails and a diamond goby

[allan]

John was explaining to me the other day that he uses a slow siphon vacuum... When the sand gets halfway up the cup he pinches the line and let's it fall back down.

I've had dragons and diamond gobies. The former picks up sand and drops it from higher up in the tank. The latter takes in the sand and drops it while hovering right over the sand.

Gobies will keep your sand clean, but there is a chance if your tank is big enough that they may ignore a spot or three.

There is also the fact that a pod population living in the sand may be nonexistent with a goby.

I don't know how vacuuming a sand bed would affect pod pops. I've only done the sand vac when I had problems with cyano. I have spots where it shows up... But I don't see it on the sand because of the goby and conch... I think.



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[alton]

I love my Pair of Diamond Gobies. I had an Adult from Gabes and added a Juvenile from Phenomenal and it has been fun to watch these two

[Flyride95]

I also have nassarius snails and a diamond goby and my sand looks crystal clean.

[jrnannery]

What about that funky tan stuff that builds up in your sandbed?

[rrasco]

I've never vacuumed substrate in a saltwater tank. I have thought about adding something to sift it, but I don't like snails and there is usually a downside to everything.

[kkiel02]

I just let mine be. I dont get algae on it because I run an ATS. I do have an engineer goby but he has already made all his tunnels under my rocks awhile back.