Is a consistently clean sand bed an attainable goal?

[Crabs McJones]

I'm slowly working my way to a bare bottom tank

 

[brandon429]

Handy test:



one thing to consider about animal cleaners is they'd better be fast workers, gobies for example, physically kicking up waste so your currents and filters can grab it. that's the only way detritus is further reduced in our typical systems, has to be physically removed or allowed to fully break down within the system and something grabs its nutrient additions from the water (like carbon dosing, ats offsets etc)

occasionally stratified oxygen zones in rock and sand will reduce nitrate, however they usually just produce it aerobically using copious organic stores readily avail, the sand clouding detritus.

animals may very well eat top layers of diatoms and cyano, imparting a clean look for sure but this is all finite care, its storing waste in lower layers as fecal pellets manufactured from the layer above and left by the animals, worms, bugs etc.

if they're slow movers, animals that clean the top layers, they deposit more detritus underneath the clean layer...

so a sandbed that is topically cleaned but bottom challenged still adds a finite lifespan to things, given volume and other factors.

A truly clean bed has phases or times in it where stirring it with something makes very little cloud, or at least a non lethal one since its been worked in cycles before to not be fully laden. accessibility without cycle/mark of a balanced bed.

if you can't grab sand and drop it down in a tank and have that not kill the tank, that's 90s reefing we can do better with cleaner settings and rely less on luck to make tanks run long term.

I always used Paul B's tank as an example of large tankers who are busy w sb

 

[cracker]

Crabs, I thought You were already there. It's working fine for me so far. I do think the sand looks better. I don't need sparkly white sand but can't have it looking like my lawn either .

 

[Crabs McJones]

Crabs, I thought You were already there. It's working fine for me so far. I do think the sand looks better. I don't need sparkly white sand but can't have it looking like my lawn either .

I was half way there lol. My MP10's blew all the sand from the front to the back making mine a 50/50 split of sandbed and bare bottom. But another user @DSC reef inspired me to go completely barebottom. So what i've been doing is taking a little sand out each time by sucking it up with my hose for my water change.

 

[Leslie Tabor]

An Engineer Goby does an amazing job...somedays annoying, I lost a jawbreaker because of Prometheus, but he MOVES some sand. He cleans out where I can't get to, it is pretty amazing.

 

[reefwiser]

I really like that idea and its so amazingly simple I am shocked that I never saw it before or thought of it myself. Thanks.

I learned this trick from the freshwater side of the hobby. It is great being in both sides of the Aquarium hobby. I learn new tricks all the time. Plus I get to enjoy the beauty of nature. If my Reef is causing me head aches I can enjoy my nature planted aquarium.

 

[OriginalUserName]

I've never had a problem keeping my sand bed clean (assuming I'm not having cyano problems). The only issue I get is algae growing on the glass in front of the sand but that's easy to keep up on. I have high flow so my sand moves around a little on it's own, plus a bunch of nassarius, my clowns always moving sand around and the top of the sand stays pretty darn white.

 

[Jet915]

+1 on the conchs. I feel they do a fantastic job on the sand bed and are an almost must have for larger systems!

Im assuming conchs go on rocks, due to their size, im worried they are gonna knock over my corals on the rocks, does that happen alot? I have a couple of mexican turbos and have the same worry.

 

[brandon429]

AdamNC had a neat thread on this additive

https://store.drtimsaquatics.com/Waste-Away-Gels_c_132.html

that's intended to keep a sandbed clean without having to do work, so someone test it on an old sandbed and see how well it destratifies/exports it. cheap and easy, sludge digesters are common we have a lake house on em. the digesters never cleared out our septics, it made the system process/ distribute itself better but never really cleans it out.

 

[BenitaSolo]

I'm still in in the stone ages going weekly water changes. Each time I do a change I siphon the exposed parts of the sand bed. I can easily clean the bed of those of the 120g tanks in 5-7.5 gallons worth of water change each.
This leaved the sand looking white and clean but still leaves parts of the sand I can't get to 'dirty'
About once a month I use a stick or my hands to mix the bed before a water change.
I don't know if what I am doing works well or not. It's not like all tanks don't have issues we can't explain!

 

[BenitaSolo]

Im assuming conchs go on rocks, due to their size, im worried they are gonna knock over my corals on the rocks, does that happen alot? I have a couple of mexican turbos and have the same worry.

I have 2 120's both with sandsifting conchs that i have never seen on the rock work. They are 1.5 yrs and 6 months old! I really like them. Fun to watch their little eye!

 

[Jet915]

I have 2 120's both with sandsifting conchs that i have never seen on the rock work. They are 1.5 yrs and 6 months old! I really like them. Fun to watch their little eye!

Thanks, ill probably grab a couple for my 100 gallon.

 

[BenitaSolo]

Thanks, ill probably grab a couple for my 100 gallon.

I have one in each of my tanks. I do not have any idea how they would interact. Just wanted to make that clear.

 

[Brew12]

Thanks, ill probably grab a couple for my 100 gallon.

I have 2 of them in my 187g and they have no issues interacting with each other. I have never seen them attempt to go on a rock.

 

[Borsalino]

I do nothing for a white sand bed, the Amblygobius phalaena do the job....................

 

[Rakie]

Yes -- and it's easy IF you are consistent.

 

[madweazl]

Climbs occasionally...

 

[Reeferguy365]

I use sand sifters to keep my sand clean in my 180 gallon and they do a great job

 

[klp]

I added 1 sand sifting starfish to my 85 gallon tank and my sand stays clean. I do nothing else to it to keep it clean.

Not agreeing or disagreeing having never had a sand sifting starfish. I enclose the link as balance for those that do not recommend them.
http://www.saltwatersmarts.com/sand-sifting-starfish-job-too-well-done-astropecten-4399/

 

[Reeferguy365]

Well I would have to disagree with the link that @klp posted because I have had two sand sifting stars for 2 years now in my 180 gallon and I still have plenty of life in my sand hundreds pods that you can see all over my rock work at night kind of creepy looking lots of bristle Stars and bristle worms