Cleaning Sand w/Clean-Up Crew Present

[Tamale]

Hey all! How do you go about cleaning your sand when you have snails like nassarius in the tank? When I just had some hermits and ceriths I'd just take them off the sand and place them on the rock. But with the nassarius living in the sand I'm worried about harming them when I clean the sand up. Am I overthinking it?

I thought about putting in a bit of food to get them to surface but I'm trying to limit nitrates at the moment.

 

[CoralB]

Your over thinking it . I’ve been cleaning my sand for more years than I care to say without any loss to nassarius snails .

 

[Tamale]

Your over thinking it . I’ve been cleaning my sand for more years than I care to say without any loss to nassarius snails .

Okay, I figured I might be but wanted to ask the question rather than play the game and win a stupid prize haha. Thanks for the response!

 

[UnderseaOddities]

Hey all! How do you go about cleaning your sand when you have snails like nassarius in the tank? When I just had some hermits and ceriths I'd just take them off the sand and place them on the rock. But with the nassarius living in the sand I'm worried about harming them when I clean the sand up. Am I overthinking it?

I thought about putting in a bit of food to get them to surface but I'm trying to limit nitrates at the moment.

If you're really worried about it use a turkey baster to water change if it's a nano under 40g

If its main display u or frag tank over 40g a hose may want to be utilized to siphon detritus, but if you're too fast u will suck the snails.... if u use a filter sock and clamp it to side of bucket and run one end of hose through it it shouldnt be a problem even if u suck them up the filter sock will act as a saftey net

The thing u need to be careful about sucking up is sand and creating a silt storm and releasing anaerobic bacteria in substrate if stirred that's why its important to manually remove detritus
And waste in order to not let waste set and convert to n and p

As pockets will formn dead zones and corners by rocks


But if u have a good clean up crew that agitate the substrate u may find yourself doing this signifigantly less


Just make sure to keep substrate pristine and if detritus becomes a problem ontop of wc I'd say cut back on feeding and a wc 2x compared to 1x a week until problem is solved if one happens


If u have a nem basket or mushroom basket u could put the snails in there temporarily if you're really that worried about it...

 

[UnderseaOddities]

And if all else fails and you're too busy with work school family etc

U can dose a bacteria like microbacter 7, genesis, pristine that are bacterial buffers that are enzyme and spirum based that eat detritus and nuciancse algaes and convert to npk and evap byproduct that are unusable outta the water column


Just make sure wc 10 to 35% a week depending on where your numbers are and u should be good

 

[Tamale]

If you're really worried about it use a turkey baster to water change if it's a nano under 40g

If its main display u or frag tank over 40g a hose may want to be utilized to siphon detritus, but if you're too fast u will suck the snails.... if u use a filter sock and clamp it to side of bucket and run one end of hose through it it shouldnt be a problem even if u suck them up the filter sock will act as a saftey net

The thing u need to be careful about sucking up is sand and creating a silt storm and releasing anaerobic bacteria in substrate if stirred that's why its important to manually remove detritus
And waste in order to not let waste set and convert to n and p

As pockets will formn dead zones and corners by rocks


But if u have a good clean up crew that agitate the substrate u may find yourself doing this signifigantly less


Just make sure to keep substrate pristine and if detritus becomes a problem ontop of wc I'd say cut back on feeding and a wc 2x compared to 1x a week until problem is solved if one happens


If u have a nem basket or mushroom basket u could put the snails in there temporarily if you're really that worried about it...

Its a 20g, I siphon the weekly but didn't have a robust clean up crew until recently (quarantine). I have a very thin hose that I use that keeps from overly tumbling the sand and causing a silt storm. I just didn't want to go in with the hose and hurt the snails if they get caught in the siphon for a second (if that makes sense). Sand seems to be pretty clean over all due to my weekly routine beyond dealing with some cyano (has been getting much better but still has a few pockets from a dead zone i'm working to fix). I'm also finishing up my first week dosing microbactr clean. Thanks for the reply!

 

[UnderseaOddities]

@Tamale Anytime glad to hear u got yourself a good cuc and maintenance rythm going on I hope this helped u out a little

 

[Susan Edwards]

New tank I rake my sand weekly or bi-weekly and no issues with narsarius. When I used to syphon my old tank, if I saw one in tube I'd just pinch the hose and it would fall back.

 

[blaxsun]

New tank I rake my sand weekly or bi-weekly and no issues with narsarius. When I used to syphon my old tank, if I saw one in tube I'd just pinch the hose and it would fall back.

I can't really do that in my tank. I hit a sunken nassarius snail every inch or so (I have probably 40 or so in my tank and they usually don't come out during the day anymore).

Not sure if I'm running a reef or farming snails at this point...

 

[Tamale]

@Tamale Anytime glad to hear u got yourself a good cuc and maintenance rythm going on I hope this helped u out a little

Absolutely! Always want to make sure I do the best I can so more than happy to rely on the advice and knowledge of others!

 

[Tamale]

New tank I rake my sand weekly or bi-weekly and no issues with narsarius. When I used to syphon my old tank, if I saw one in tube I'd just pinch the hose and it would fall back.

That makes sense! Thank you for the input!

 

[Susan Edwards]

I can't really do that in my tank. I hit a sunken nassarius snail every inch or so (I have probably 40 or so in my tank and they usually don't come out during the day anymore).

Not sure if I'm running a reef or farming snails at this point...

Raking dosen't bother them. they just pop up and head back down. All I'm doing is moving the sand back and forth in small areas. This is the best tool I have for my tank. I can use it without climbing a step ladder (tank as tall as I am) I right corals that have gotten flipped or knocked over, hermits and snails that need help and even shift coral in the sand if needed. The main tool I use is the rake.

 

[blaxsun]

Raking dosen't bother them. they just pop up and head back down. All I'm doing is moving the sand back and forth in small areas. This is the best tool I have for my tank. I can use it without climbing a step ladder (tank as tall as I am) I right corals that have gotten flipped or knocked over, hermits and snails that need help and even shift coral in the sand if needed. The main tool I use is the rake.

Appreciate the tip. I may have to free up some real estate first as I've got too many GSPs that have grown exponentially over the past few months (I've left the 5 colonies in the front so I can keep an eye on them).

In the interim I relocated 3 orange conches to the back of the tank for cleanup duty (kind of like moving beavers).