What’s your Tip for a clean sand bed?

[homer1475]

Stir the sandbed daily, or at least every other day.

I also put a sock in my sump, start a siphon with a 1/2" vinyl hose, put other end in the sock, and suck out the top layer of sand where all the junk is.

I then put that sand into a bucket with bleach for a couple days. Rinse in RO/DI, leave in bucket of RO/DI with a bit of prime. Let air dry after a few days, add back into the tank at a later date.

Dosing live phyto helps to out compete some of the stuff that likes to grow on your sandbed too.

 

[Graivus]

I've had a diamond goby for almost 2 years now in my 50g AIO. Keeps the sand looking great! Before I got mine, I had read that regular sized pellets and larger foods are not their preferred types to eat since they like to sift for their food. I purchased the IM food grinder and feed regular pellets and also grind some down along with supplementing various frozen foods.

 

[blaxsun]

Stir the sandbed daily, or at least every other day.

My parrotfish does this religously. Most people don't know that they'll dig burrows to sleep in (apparently someone else had dibs on the cave he normally sleeps in).

 

[flashsmith]

As someone said.. stir stir stir. I've tried a few times with sand sifting gobies of various types. They almost always stay in one area which doesn't help stir the sand at all. Every single one has died via carpet surfing. Yes I have tight fitting lids but they don't help when you clean and they jump out without you even noticing. Nassarius snails conch snails and stirring is how I keep mine clean and my wrasses do a pretty good job too. I have a tiger pistol shrimp in one of my tanks and he moves alot of sand. More than any gobie I've ever seen. We have a fun game we play. He builds his burrow and I destroy it when I stir the sand. He will either go to a new area and build another one or repair that one. Gives him something to do and helps.me keep my sand clean..lol

 

[Kustom71]

I just bought a python and it works great. Yellow goby is lazy thats true but Nassarius snails work great.

 

[Reef and Dive]

Stirring very often with a pipette. Removing detritus from the top of it often. If some substrate gets out, I don’t care, adding new substrate often solves it…

 

[sawdonkey]

I also put a sock in my sump, start a siphon with a 1/2" vinyl hose, put other end in the sock, and suck out the top layer of sand where all the junk is.

I came here to say this. Works like a charm….without the hassle of a water change.

 

[nicowboy]

That is not my advice. It's really hard to get a healthy one and harder to get them to live past a few months. Sand sifting stars are better.

Ok I will use my hands more then haha

 

[nicowboy]

Conchs and lots of them. I haver two in my 90 and really need more. I have two in my 15 (one is very small) and they keep that sand really clean.

Yeah I'm going to buy some, I don't have any of them as my CUC

 

[nicowboy]

Stir the sandbed daily, or at least every other day.

I also put a sock in my sump, start a siphon with a 1/2" vinyl hose, put other end in the sock, and suck out the top layer of sand where all the junk is.

I then put that sand into a bucket with bleach for a couple days. Rinse in RO/DI, leave in bucket of RO/DI with a bit of prime. Let air dry after a few days, add back into the tank at a later date.

Dosing live phyto helps to out compete some of the stuff that likes to grow on your sandbed too.

Oh wooow never read that tip before, when you add bleach to your sand, do you add some water to it, dump the water couple days after that then add RO/DI right ?

 

[nicowboy]

As someone said.. stir stir stir. I've tried a few times with sand sifting gobies of various types. They almost always stay in one area which doesn't help stir the sand at all. Every single one has died via carpet surfing. Yes I have tight fitting lids but they don't help when you clean and they jump out without you even noticing. Nassarius snails conch snails and stirring is how I keep mine clean and my wrasses do a pretty good job too. I have a tiger pistol shrimp in one of my tanks and he moves alot of sand. More than any gobie I've ever seen. We have a fun game we play. He builds his burrow and I destroy it when I stir the sand. He will either go to a new area and build another one or repair that one. Gives him something to do and helps.me keep my sand clean..lol

Great tips, thank you

 

[nicowboy]

I just bought a python and it works great. Yellow goby is lazy thats true but Nassarius snails work great.

Yes I need phyton and more pods also, I need to get rid of my hair algae that I'm dealing with at the moment...

 

[nicowboy]

Stirring very often with a pipette. Removing detritus from the top of it often. If some substrate gets out, I don’t care, adding new substrate often solves it…

View attachment 2908952

Great picture !!! do you keep your spare sand wet on the side when you do end up adding more ?

 

[nicowboy]

I came here to say this. Works like a charm….without the hassle of a water change>

I will try that for sure

 

[Reef and Dive]

Great picture !!! do you keep your spare sand wet on the side when you do end up adding more ?

Nope. Dry. I just wash it, put on a cup and introduce it without circulation. I turn the cup upside down close to the bottom to avoid too much silt…

 

[Sean Clark]

Strong random flow works wonders.

 

[nicowboy]

Nope. Dry. I just wash it, put on a cup and introduce it without circulation. I turn the cup upside down close to the bottom to avoid too much silt…

Great thank you

 

[EeyoreIsMySpiritAnimal]

Lots and lots of hair worms!!

 

[Sean Clark]

Lots and lots of hair worms!!

 

[EeyoreIsMySpiritAnimal]

Hi guys !

I’ve been looking for good tips and effective way of cleaning my sand bed, I’ve so many people that has a lot of livestock and still has a nice and clean sand bed ! I found it so hard to actually vacuum everything without taking the sand and some stuff are too heavy to get through the syphon …

so what’s your best tips and experience for a clean sand bed?

Are you trying to actually rip all the detritus out or just have nice white sand?
If I stir my sand, it's pretty dirty, but on the surface, it's pristine.