3rd tank - substrate always has brown spots

[RaymondL]

So onto my third tank and even with the mature one at 3 years, the substrate is never white like I see with other reefer's tank. I don't think it's a flow issue as I have 4 powerheads yes, an overkill for a 20 gallon tank! I have a total of 11 Nassarius snails and one conch, so the sand gets moved a lot.

For once I would like to experience a clean sand bed - what possible things I can do?

I don't believe that what I'm seeing is diatoms. By the way, my sand has a brown coating after a couple of days.....is this an indication of too many nutrients from overfeeding, and such that the substrate goes brown as well? What is this brown stuff anyway on the glass.

 

[exnisstech]

I've never been able to keep a sand bed white. The only way I can think of would be constant stirring and vacuuming. Even having sand sifters like conchs, nasarius snails and sand sitting gobies my sand was never pure white if your talking about like new white.

EDIT: I've never actually vacuumed and stirred sand. After thinking about out it I'm not sure even that would work to keep it pure white like some YT videos. I'm mostly bare bottom and the tanks that do have sand I don't disturb the sand.

 

[Science/G]

Bare bottom is the way to go IMHO. Now with that being said, I did silicone a piece of beige acrylic to the bottom for a more natural look. To me sand beds are a nightmare.
This picture was really early in the aquariums development, but it gives you a good idea of what the acrylic bottom look like

Now most of the bottom is covered with Ricordia anemones