Cleaning sand?

[Trickdout69]

Well I set up my new tank. I have a 210g with black sand. The problem I'm having is i put my live rock in and tons of tiny pieces of the rock and stuff that was on the rock is now inthe sand. I tried using a gravel vac but it doesn't pick that stuff up. I really can reach in there and pick it all out. I was wondering if anyone had any ideas of how to do this. Any info would be great. Thanks

 

[rarecoral]

Dude, unfortunately black sand will always have this issue.

 

[Squishie89]

Depending on how big the pieces are you could use an aquatic rake. There is a tank cleaning handle out there comes in like 3 different lengths and has 3 or 4 attachments: a rake, a soft acrylic cleaner, a razor blade. It is black and red in color. I love the rake attachment, I use it all the time to get stuff out or move things.

 

[mike007]

I would just leave it alone.

 

[mcarroll]

Same as in nature...black sand beaches are made by volcanos - nothing particularly reefy about that. White sand ones are made from coral. In time when the reefs come, the black always ends up with white "coral sand" on it. (And it usually pays to work with nature vs against it.) Maybe consider bare bottom with a black under-covering? How about a more "sacrificial" sand bed where you just expect to replace it somewhat frequently for aesthetics, so you only put an inch or less in? (Enough that it covers things, but still easy to siphon out when it's time.)

Just some ideas.

Speaking of black sand beaches...
(Click it! Wikipedia has a near-HD version.)

On a happy note, the "white sanding" hasn't happened here yet! B-)
(Waipio Valley, Hawai'i. The Big Island.)

 

[Trickdout69]

I understand it will get like that. I'm just talking about the initial setup. There's a lot of stuff that fell off dropping the rock in and like I said there's too much and the tank is too large to pick all of it out

 

[mcarroll]

A 1/2" siphon hose will easily draw off the top layer.

If the white is mixed in already, just siphon the whole bed out and start with a fresh sand bed. Simplest, cheapest solution.

-Matt


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