Best Sand Cleaning Solution for Larger Tanks?

[mikedb]

One of my favorite things about my 140 gallon peninsula is the sand bed. I know sand isn't for everyone, but for me it is a quintessential part of a reef aquarium, and I love having a few corals on the sand bed. However, keeping my sand bed clean and white is beginning to become a hassle. About once a week, I am having to stir the sand bed with my Tunze grabbers to keep it free from algae and detritus, and even then it isn't as white as it once was.

Doing a search of these forums has been great, but most results and answers seem to be oriented towards smaller tanks. With my minimalist rockwork, I have at least six square feet of sand to keep clean!

I have considered various solutions:

1. A diamond goby: Seems like the perfect solution, but I have a few corals on the sand (including two expensive ultra plate corals and Rock Flower Anemones) and even more corals within an inch or two of the sand (torches and hammers). I am concerned about (a) damage to those corals, and (b) about various reports that they stop stirring the sand and settle into a cave after a year or two.
2. Fighting Conch snails: I have three, and love their antics! But they barely make a dent, in my experience. I often see them buried, with a 2" diameter circle around where they have been eating. Would a lot more conch snails (10+) help?
3. Nassarius snails: I have around 10, and they don't seem to do much. Would increasing the number drastically (50-100+) help?
4. Watchman goby/pistol shrimp: They do a great job on the 6"x6" area right outside their cave, but not much else
5. Sea cucumber: I am tempted to buy three from Pacific East Aquaculture, but have heard limited reviews. Will these survive long-term and keep my sandbed clean and white?

Are there any other options I am missing? Does anyone have a proven technique for a tank this size?

 

[Pete Luna]

I have a Goat Fish he cleans a lot

 

[Paul B]

I use a diatom filter with a long hose. Been doing it like that since the 60s. No problems yet.

 

[brandon429]

All the cuc listed contributes waste to a bed via their excretion. Like Paul said it must be manual work. His way is best export for least work. Not having to take apart rocks is how most prefer

This method here is tank surgery, complete disassembly cleaning which goes the longest between servicings but the work factor alone is why I'll only do pico reefs. This tank here got five + years reversed off max lifespan limit. It's your sized reef, he was determined to force the tank to age without invasion this will reinforce that goal.

120 gallon rip clean

Hey is that lysmata still kickin He was hiding probably starting to molt. I dripped some fish food in and he is still happy. My tank hasn’t been this clean or happy in years!!

www.reef2reef.com

That's the cleanest old sandbed in reefing, his method is best tank clean. It's so much work, most will not even consider it.

 

[AlexG]

The sand bed in my 480 gallon tank uses a variety of CUC members to keep it clean. My sand is anywhere from ~1" to 4" deep depending on how the flow and fish have moved the sand around. I started with mostly dry sand from caribsea in several sized grades mixed together. I do stir a few handfuls of sand once in a while to feed the corals and drive some detritus to the skimmer but for the most part I rely on the cleanup crew to do their job. The tank was seeded with ~60lbs of actual live sand to jump start the micro fauna. I don't have any fish that are specific sand sifters as I find they just make a mess that can irritate corals that are on or near the the sand bed. Most of the time my sand looks nice and white but on occasion it will get a slight tone from algae.

Sand Cleanup crew:

• 8-12 sea cucumbers (tiger tails) which have multiplied over the last couple of years
• 3 conchs
• 8-12 sand stars which were introduced to the tank after it was running for a few months
• Nassarius Snails - Not sure how many of them are since they have been breeding actively
• 3-4 larger brittle stars
• Micro fauna: Worms, micro brittle stars, micro hitchhiker snails sp. unknown, ostracods, mysid shrimp, copepods, amphipods

 

[Jose Berry]

I have this guy, he was free and well goes every where I don’t know what he is but this dude is huge and turns the bed of my sand daily. Aside the cloud some times he produces my sand beds never been cleaner.

 

[New&no clue]

My Diamond Goby was a huge nuisance when first introduced. I don't know how many times he buried my hammer and zoa garden. However once he found his burrow, I moved any sand corals away from that area and he has been just fine since. Occasionally I will see spots at the back of the tank with a buildup of crud and think I need to clean that spot next WC... but by the time I go to do it he's already taken care of it.

 

[Paul B]

Many people don't realize that detritus is composed of, among other things, fish poop. It is also composed of CUC poop. What goes in, comes out.

 

[Vamsi]

My Yellow Watchman Goby and Tiger Pistol Shrimp are a pain. They keep constantly changing their spot, as such they keep covering the corals with sand. In the past I did loose some mushrooms and corals that were on the sand bed. If I had a chance I would try to catch them and put them in my sump. I have miracle mud in my sump. But I do not know how I can get hold of them.

 

[ca1ore]

It depends a lot on what is in your sand bed. If it's mostly inert, mineralized mulm then there's no nutrition in it and your conches, snails and other sand fauna will starve. If it's excess fish food, then just feed less …. or less more often. My preferred approach is to keep sand sleeping wrasses to turn over the sand bed.

 

[mikedb]

Wow, thanks everyone for the excellent replies!

I have a Goat Fish he cleans a lot

What an interesting option! It appears that these fish have a reputation for only sifting the top layer of the sand and not rearranging things as badly as the diamond goby. Unfortunately they grow 8" long! I'm not sure I would feel right putting a fish that grows that large in a tank that is only 5' long....

I use a diatom filter with a long hose. Been doing it like that since the 60s. No problems yet.

This is likely the best option. My only reluctance is that I am trying very hard to limit the use of siphons, pumps, and tubes to my basement sump. I know all to well that any work that takes place near the display tank will inevitably result in a saltwater spill, and damage to my new premium hardwood floor....

I also worry that the sand vacuuming will be one of the first pieces of maintenance that I should fall behind on when life gets busier. I was hoping to find a 'self cleaning' solution that would limit hands-on maintenance to once a month or less.

I certainly can't argue with your results, though! Thank you.

The sand bed in my 480 gallon tank uses a variety of CUC members to keep it clean. My sand is anywhere from ~1" to 4" deep depending on how the flow and fish have moved the sand around. I started with mostly dry sand from caribsea in several sized grades mixed together. I do stir a few handfuls of sand once in a while to feed the corals and drive some detritus to the skimmer but for the most part I rely on the cleanup crew to do their job. The tank was seeded with ~60lbs of actual live sand to jump start the micro fauna. I don't have any fish that are specific sand sifters as I find they just make a mess that can irritate corals that are on or near the the sand bed. Most of the time my sand looks nice and white but on occasion it will get a slight tone from algae.

Sand Cleanup crew:

• 8-12 sea cucumbers (tiger tails) which have multiplied over the last couple of years
• 3 conchs
• 8-12 sand stars which were introduced to the tank after it was running for a few months
• Nassarius Snails - Not sure how many of them are since they have been breeding actively
• 3-4 larger brittle stars
• Micro fauna: Worms, micro brittle stars, micro hitchhiker snails sp. unknown, ostracods, mysid shrimp, copepods, amphipods

Thank you for this informative post and the accompanying pictures. It really gives me a great idea of what can be accomplished with a non-fish clean up crew.

My Diamond Goby was a huge nuisance when first introduced. I don't know how many times he buried my hammer and zoa garden. However once he found his burrow, I moved any sand corals away from that area and he has been just fine since. Occasionally I will see spots at the back of the tank with a buildup of crud and think I need to clean that spot next WC... but by the time I go to do it he's already taken care of it.

Interesting. There is very little long-term experience posted on these forums, so thank you for that. It seems that these fish often have very different personalities, and it can be a bit of a crapshoot, like with any fish. Tough call.

My Yellow Watchman Goby and Tiger Pistol Shrimp are a pain. They keep constantly changing their spot, as such they keep covering the corals with sand. In the past I did loose some mushrooms and corals that were on the sand bed. If I had a chance I would try to catch them and put them in my sump. I have miracle mud in my sump. But I do not know how I can get hold of them.

Fortunately mine have stayed put. My pistol shrimp likes dragging frags to shore up his caves, but I was able to intercept him quickly enough that no damage was done. Mounting any coral on the sand within 8" of his cave entrance onto a larger rock solved the problem and the pistol shrimp and goby are now model citizens.

It depends a lot on what is in your sand bed. If it's mostly inert, mineralized mulm then there's no nutrition in it and your conches, snails and other sand fauna will starve. If it's excess fish food, then just feed less …. or less more often. My preferred approach is to keep sand sleeping wrasses to turn over the sand bed.

Tough to say what is in my sandbed... seems like a lot of detritus to me. Unfortunately my melanurus wrasse doesn't turn over the sandbed much... he likes to sleep under frags on the sandbed and barely disturbs the area.

 

[vetteguy53081]

I run 3/4" sandbed

 

[Nasir]

Cleaning Crews, Sand sifting starfish, sand sifting fish, snails that sift the sand. I never clean my sand and don’t have to. It’s done naturally with the animals that where made for that.

 

[Afterburner]

I have a Jawfish that I have seen swim away from his hole and grab a mouth of sand to to bring back to it. I am thinking of getting another one that will hopefully make a separate home site and dig up the bed in another spot. My Watchman/Tiger Pistol duo do a great job moving around on their side of the tank, but I also have the problem with any frags that fall off the rocks becoming buried in their home. Any corals that I have on the bottom, I glue to a small/medium rock and it generally stays put and is fine. I was thinking of getting another goby/pistol, but I heard that my buddy's shacked up together and ate the goby, so I am going the Jawfish route instead, and hopefully my LFS will get me a Blue Star Leopard Wrasse some day.

 

[Gordon Cashmore]

I use a diatom filter with a long hose. Been doing it like that since the 60s. No problems yet.

What hose are you hooking to that filter and how do you hook it up?

 

[jefra]

I’ve been struggling a bit with this too. I have a peninsula tank and to maintain its long, uninterrupted look, I don’t use a wavemaker on the one end. Even with my oversized gyre, there’s a bit of a dead zone where detritus accumulates.

I recently added a second wavemaker below the gyre that runs for 2-3 minutes a day after the first major fish feeding. It’s too much flow to run constantly, but forces all the particulate into the water column to be filtered into my refugium then filter floss.

 

[Paul B]

What hose are you hooking to that filter and how do you hook it up?

Thats just an acrylic tube. You can get 3/8" PVC tubes in Home Depot in the plumbing section, they are used to hook up bathroom sinks.

 

[ReefChef19]

I use a diatom filter with a long hose. Been doing it like that since the 60s. No problems yet.

Sorry ahead of time im still a newbie trying to learn! What are you using to actually blow everything off? Thanks

 

[Stevel]

I have a Jawfish that I have seen swim away from his hole and grab a mouth of sand to to bring back to it. I am thinking of getting another one that will hopefully make a separate home site and dig up the bed in another spot. My Watchman/Tiger Pistol duo do a great job moving around on their side of the tank, but I also have the problem with any frags that fall off the rocks becoming buried in their home. Any corals that I have on the bottom, I glue to a small/medium rock and it generally stays put and is fine. I was thinking of getting another goby/pistol, but I heard that my buddy's shacked up together and ate the goby, so I am going the Jawfish route instead, and hopefully my LFS will get me a Blue Star Leopard Wrasse some day.

My blue spots move my sand bed all the time but they have buried some of my Zoa”s before. You just have to keep on top of them doing that. But they do turn over a sand bed like you never seen

 

[ScottB]

My critter lists is similar to all above.

My manual process is similar to @Paul B . Just a Maxjet 1200 clamped to the front glass with a long soft silicone hose attached to the output. I try hard to blast all the sand -- to the point where I can no longer see what I am doing. I do it at each WC and suck out 40G of cloudy water. After refill, I will blast off the rock/corals and pull out the filthy socks.

I would NOT recommend this for a sand bed that has not had much/any maintenance. With time -- in an anaerobic environment -- some nasties can gather there.