Sand bed stirring...

[Marcom12]

Ok... Lol. :)

I have been struggling with what I want to do with my sand bed.

I DO NOT WANT BARE BOTTOM.

There, that's out of the way..

Stir? Vacuum? I plan on about 2-3 inch depth....

Vacuuming sounds great.... But feel it exports pods and other critters ...

I like my critters in the sand and I see the little burrows and such and do not want to mess with them. But I also want to stir the sand I think.... I guess I don't know the direction I want to go... I seems both stirring and vacuuming disrupts the critters.

I keep critters and such... Not sand....

So what should I do? And why?

 

[BadFish619]

The ol catch 22. If ur looking to get it cleaned up maybe just point a powerhead slightly down and get all the junk up into the water column to be filtered out. I occasionally turn an extra high flow on. Not to make sand fly but anything sitting on it. Idk just an idea

 

[Adalius]

I know some people just get one of those battery powered transfer pumps and put the outlet back in the tank with a mesh bag. Little more work but you could then put the mesh bag in a bowl of tank water and manually try to recapture some of the pods and other critters with a turkey baster...

 

[aydemir]

You could get some cuc that will stir the sandbed themselves like nassarius?

 

[Injoynit]

One Diamond Goby or a Pearly Jawfish and your sand is taken care of no work on your part except the feeding, cleaning, filter changes..........

 

[Marcom12]

One Diamond Goby or a Pearly Jawfish and your sand is taken care of no work on your part except the feeding, cleaning, filter changes..........

Would they not eat all my pods and such?

 

[Fourstars]

Just leave the sand bed alone. Go with fine sand unless you want corals that require height flow. Spend some money on CUC.

 

[MrObscura]

I just turkey basted the hell out of it before each waterchange. But I don't have a lot of floor space in the tank or any livestock that needs sand so I just pulled it out and went bare.

There's still some in there that I haven't gotten out but it's really just a dusting of sand.

 

[Injoynit]

One Diamond Goby or a Pearly Jawfish and your sand is taken care of no work on your part except the feeding, cleaning, filter changes..........

"Would they not eat all my pods and such?"

Yes they will snack on your pods but if you have a refugium with some live rock or marine pure the pods should have a safe place to multiply. Just build your pod population up before adding the sand sifters. You could also add a sand sifting starfish. :)

 

[flchamp89]

Cerith snails are pretty awesome. Cheap

 

[frank the tank]

"Would they not eat all my pods and such?"

Yes they will snack on your pods but if you have a refugium with some live rock or marine pure the pods should have a safe place to multiply. Just build your pod population up before adding the sand sifters. You could also add a sand sifting starfish. :)

My goby works great at keeping my sand clean, but the down side to them is that you will be constantly blowing the sand off your corals and rock work. What ever you favorite coral is, they will find it, and bury it, bunch of jerks.