DSB Question - Bone Yard

[Mike Arnold]

My tank is 7 months established now and the sand bed seems to be coming along; however, there are a lot of debris piling up: old shells and rubble rocks.

I'm hesitant about raking them up and removing them for fear of disturbing the sand bed and releasing undesirable gasses; however, I noticed that my Nassarius Snails, brittle and serpent stars burrow without causing issues.

Does anyone have any advice on how to clean the surface of the sand bed?

Please excuse the blues; I was too lazy to get my filters out.

 

[Downbeach]

I had a 7" DSB, and used to use a fish net, and just scrape the top, the oolitic substrate would go through it while the shells, broken pieces of coral, etc. would remain in the net.

 

[Nihilus]

I don't think you'll have any problems removing that stuff either. If you don't want to use a net like mentioned above you could always buy some vinyl hosing and siphon it out.

 

[Roboson]

I used a flour sifter for mine. It didn't work super well. But I got all the chunks out.

 

[mrbncal]

Litter box scooper works for most of it.

Regarding the gas issue, it should not be a problem unless you were turning over the whole sand bed. Just skimming the top half inch of the surface shouldn't be a problem.