What do you do to keep your sand clean?

[mjw011689]

Wondering what everyone does in regards to keeping sand looking clean. Mostly looking for long term success. I’m not a huge fan of using a gravel vac, since that’s generally agreed to not be a great idea, and the only times I’ve had issues in my tanks was when I’ve used the gravel vac on sand.

Lately I’ve had some algae in the sand (not on any rock or anything else) and I’m curious how yall keep it clean? The tank is much older than I’d expect to be having this issue still, at least compared with previous tanks. Nitrate is 11.6, phos is .15, so maybe a tad high but not what I’d expect to cause problems.

Has anyone had success using any of the live sands from the ocean? TBS or otherwise?

Trying not to add a diamond goby since they’re hit or miss, plus the mess and I’ve done it without in the past… I’ve got a few tiger conchs, tons of nassarius (although they’re not really algae eaters), probably 60-100 ceriths.

Any thoughts?

Forgot to add, it’s not really diatoms either, little darker. Pictures look way worse than it is but I’ll try to get a good one. Just seems like a normal green/brown algae.

 

[bluemon]

I usually don’t bother.

I leave it to my CUC (conch and serpent star)

And maybe twice a week, I pick one small spot to “stir up” with my hand so the gunk down to the filter. Never more than one small spot though.

If you have algae problems, might be an issue with flow and nutrients.

I do this even though I have zero algae issues

 

[mjw011689]

EDIT:

After a closer look, It actually is a type of hair algae. But it’s only growing in my sand? It’s super thin and not really growing longer, it just looks like fuzz on the sand

 

[hellokevin]

How many gallons is your tank? My 30g magically cleared up and has been sparkling clean sand for the past 3 months. The tank is now 13 months old.

It happened around the same time I got 3 tiger conch, one tuxedo urchin, and dosed one bottle of "Pink & Purple Live Coralline Algae Kit - ARC Reef". It includes bacteria so maybe that helped? I definitely saw my tiger conch actively eating all that stuff from my sand bed and rocks. Nitrate and phosphate about the same as your readings.

 

[mjw011689]

It’s a 125, right around a year old, but everything in it came from my 90 that was 2 years old (and a 70 prior to that). The rock/sand are all 3 plus years old and did not really have this problem until a few months into the current tank.

I see pics/videos of nice setups with pristine sand. I’d lean towards saying these are newly setup with fresh sand, but the coral growth in the tanks say otherwise, and I’ve seen a few in person that i know for a fact are multiple years old and still look like new sand. How are people doing this?

You mentioned bacteria, and I do currently use microbacter7, been about 2 months straight without much result (other than lower nitrate/phos readings).

To me the weird part is that it’s only in the sand, which makes me think it’s a bacterial (or lack thereof) issue in the sand bed.

 

[Featherweight]

Do you have sand cleaners? Striped conch, nassarius, surf snails, etc

 

[Reefer Matt]

When I had sand, I vacuumed it with every water change. Lol! Okay, that’s not true, but it’s what I should have done. Just because a tank tests low in nutrients doesn’t mean it doesn’t exist on the surface of the sand and rocks. Think of it like spreading fertilizer on your yard, but testing the air for nutrients. One way or another, the “litter box” must get cleaned. Many Reefers use CUC members to help. I regularly blow my rockwork off with a turkey baster to remove detritus and send it into the filter sock.

 

[mjw011689]

Do you have sand cleaners? Striped conch, nassarius, surf snails, etc

Yep, like I mentioned on the first post, 3 tiger conchs, between 60-100 ceriths, probably 30-50 nassarius.

Diamond or Bella goby is my next move although I really don’t want to. I’d rather not deal with the mess if I don’t have to.

 

[DylanE]

Yep, like I mentioned on the first post, 3 tiger conchs, between 60-100 ceriths, probably 30-50 nassarius.

Diamond or Bella goby is my next move although I really don’t want to. I’d rather not deal with the mess if I don’t have to.

people say they have issues with the mess from diamond gobies, but I'm never had that issue. I've kept them for years and my sand was always immaculate. Recently had one disappear after a few years and my sand looks terrible lol. I need another one asap.

 

[mjw011689]

Yeah I’ve had both experiences with them. Of the 3 I’ve had over the years, one was a perfect citizen and the other 2 liked to drop sand in front of wavemakers.

 

[carri10]

Hi.
Like you and army of nassarius and ceriths. Also 2 conches and a twin spot goby. The tank is 330gallons, so there is enough real estate for the twin spot.

You mentioned that vacuuming is a bad idea. Why do you say that? Is it related to infrequent vacuuming of large areas?
I’m not sure what is wrong with a monthly vacuum of a third of the tank, but happy to be educated.

 

[Gumbies R Us]

I would vacuum the sand during water changes. In the future, I will probably get conches to help combat the algae issues

 

[Hairyteeth]

Conch for the win!!!!

 

[BryanM]

It’s a 125, right around a year old, but everything in it came from my 90 that was 2 years old (and a 70 prior to that). The rock/sand are all 3 plus years old and did not really have this problem until a few months into the current tank.

I see pics/videos of nice setups with pristine sand. I’d lean towards saying these are newly setup with fresh sand, but the coral growth in the tanks say otherwise, and I’ve seen a few in person that i know for a fact are multiple years old and still look like new sand. How are people doing this?

You mentioned bacteria, and I do currently use microbacter7, been about 2 months straight without much result (other than lower nitrate/phos readings).

To me the weird part is that it’s only in the sand, which makes me think it’s a bacterial (or lack thereof) issue in the sand bed.

When I tried to find an answer for this question, mostly what I came up with was vacuuming once a week.

I don't have a better answer at this time, as I'm just getting close to being one year in in the hobby. I am HOPING when I'm done with my nuisance algae issues that I can come up with a CUC combo that deals with turning over the sand where I do not have to vacuum..... That's the grand plan!

 

[hellokevin]

It’s a 125, right around a year old, but everything in it came from my 90 that was 2 years old (and a 70 prior to that). The rock/sand are all 3 plus years old and did not really have this problem until a few months into the current tank.

I see pics/videos of nice setups with pristine sand. I’d lean towards saying these are newly setup with fresh sand, but the coral growth in the tanks say otherwise, and I’ve seen a few in person that i know for a fact are multiple years old and still look like new sand. How are people doing this?

You mentioned bacteria, and I do currently use microbacter7, been about 2 months straight without much result (other than lower nitrate/phos readings).

To me the weird part is that it’s only in the sand, which makes me think it’s a bacterial (or lack thereof) issue in the sand bed.

I'm guessing the bacteria I bought just added some more diversity to my tank, which helped it balance out . I did try microbacter7 before this and it didn't produce much visible results

Hi.
Like you and army of nassarius and ceriths. Also 2 conches and a twin spot goby. The tank is 330gallons, so there is enough real estate for the twin spot.

You mentioned that vacuuming is a bad idea. Why do you say that? Is it related to infrequent vacuuming of large areas?
I’m not sure what is wrong with a monthly vacuum of a third of the tank, but happy to be educated.

If you haven't vaccumed it in a long time, it might disturb and bring up a lot of settled gunk within the sand (and/or disturb anaerobic zones). In that case it's probably better to vacuum a small section per water change. Also if you use mainly sand for bacteria filter and don't have many live rock or other organic filtration, it might cause some issues.

For the people suggesting gobies, IMO they're a great addition only if there are other algae-consuming fellas on the sandbed. The diamond gobies do not actually help eat the algae (from my knowledge), they get pods and other small critters, but in my case mainly help bury detritus/poop/etc bringing hopefully cleaner sand up. The sandbed/bacteria then help process that organic load over time.

 

[mjw011689]

For the people suggesting gobies, IMO they're a great addition only if there are other algae-consuming fellas on the sandbed. The diamond gobies do not actually help eat the algae (from my knowledge), they get pods and other small critters, but in my case mainly help bury detritus/poop/etc bringing hopefully cleaner sand up.

This is my other reason for not wanting the goby. I’ve not seen them really make a difference with algae. Sure, they’ll prevent things from settling, but ones there’s already algae, I don’t see them make a huge difference.

Idk, maybe I’ll add a bunch more conchs. The ones I have now scoot around all day pushing through it but they don’t really seem to much the algae.

As for trying not to vac the sand, as I mentioned that’s when I’ve had the most issues in the past. I’ve tried doing it all at once, section by section, etc. the times I’ve vacuumed the sand I’ve had spikes in no3 and po4. Not sure if this was due to them being trapped in the sand or because I destroyed whatever bacteria that was consuming them.

 

[LiquidSpace]

I don’t know…I have been wondering the same thing. I don’t think photos capture how dirty sand can get. Someone correct me if I’m wrong but there’s no such thing as a 100% sand bed? I have been agonizing over this for example…

Brown spots…detritus build up. I’ve been trying to get my flow just right so it skims the top of the sand but I think it might just be normal.

Is this kinda what you have? Like you say, pictures make it look worse!

My aquariums have always been like this but now that I have a 200 gallon it seems more serious and I’m questioning older things that I just accepted in the past.

 

[ChrisfromBrick]

keep nassarius snails, crabs, and conchs.

 

[mjw011689]

man I’d take that over mine right now. Most of my tanks in the past have looked like that picture, but this one is just giving me issues. I did start with the dry Carib sea sand though, I’m wondering if I’d have this same issue if I’d done tbs or one of the others.

 

[mjw011689]

keep nassarius snails, crabs, and conchs.

Literally over 100 between nassarius and ceriths, and 3 conchs.