How can i get clean sand?

[Jason Collins]

My sand has been bothering me that I cannot keep it white. Is the only thing to do really is get a goby? Im worried about them digging around and making a mess everywhere. I have a 93g cube tank. I have a good bit of flow in the tank.... 2 jabao power heads. One is the QP-16 and one QP-9. They are both on about 50%. With my tank being a cube if I go much higher then I start getting more holds in the corner of the tank with the flow blowing sand around. They tank is 11 months old now and I pretty much have the same crap on my sand for 6+ months now. Some days I stir the sand to try and get rid of it but I've read stirring the sand too much can be bad for the system.

My parameters seem to be ok except maybe my Alk being a little low. I havent figured out how to raise my alk yet... Ive been dosing just Alk of a 2 part for days now and it never seems to want to raise. I'm worried about raising it too fast at once and making the corals mad. I just tested my alk twice. Once with a hanna that gave 8.0 and once with sailfert that gave 7.0. So it seems odd for them to be off by 1.0 of each other. I just ordered calibration solution for my hanna to see if it is reading correctly.

My Calcium was 420 and magnesium was 1350. Which seems to be fine. But alk seems to never want to raise over 8.0 no matter how much I dose of B-Ionic component 1. Should I not worry about getting my alk higher than 8? I have some SPS coming next weekend to try a few and I'm worried my alk is too low. Any suggestions on what I Should do? Would raising my Alk help my Sand issue also? The brown on my sand doesnt look like slime or anything so I don' t think its cyano. I just cant get it to go away and it makes the sand ugly.

I have 0 Nitrate and 0 phosphate.. I'm not sure why I'm not getting any of those either. Seems like I should be getting a little bit here and there but only 1 time has my hanna test ever read phosphate higher that 0. My cheato in my fuge grows like a weed though. I throw handfulls of it away every 2 weeks or so. So I was always thinking that is what is keeping my nitrate and phosphate so low.

I also barely have any coralline. I have had 3 sizable live rocks ( about 7 lbs each) in my tank for probably 8 months now. And I only have 2 dots of corraline on powerheads and like 1 quarter size spot on my overflow. Is low alk causing my corraline to not grow? My corals seem to be doing fine with my parameters I just cant get coralline to grow for anything.

 

[Crabs McJones]

My sand has been bothering me that I cannot keep it white. Is the only thing to do really is get a goby? Im worried about them digging around and making a mess everywhere. I have a 93g cube tank. I have a good bit of flow in the tank.... 2 jabao power heads. One is the QP-16 and one QP-9. They are both on about 50%. With my tank being a cube if I go much higher then I start getting more holds in the corner of the tank with the flow blowing sand around. They tank is 11 months old now and I pretty much have the same crap on my sand for 6+ months now. Some days I stir the sand to try and get rid of it but I've read stirring the sand too much can be bad for the system.

My parameters seem to be ok except maybe my Alk being a little low. I havent figured out how to raise my alk yet... Ive been dosing just Alk of a 2 part for days now and it never seems to want to raise. I'm worried about raising it too fast at once and making the corals mad. I just tested my alk twice. Once with a hanna that gave 8.0 and once with sailfert that gave 7.0. So it seems odd for them to be off by 1.0 of each other. I just ordered calibration solution for my hanna to see if it is reading correctly.

My Calcium was 420 and magnesium was 1350. Which seems to be fine. But alk seems to never want to raise over 8.0 no matter how much I dose of B-Ionic component 1. Should I not worry about getting my alk higher than 8? I have some SPS coming next weekend to try a few and I'm worried my alk is too low. Any suggestions on what I Should do? Would raising my Alk help my Sand issue also? The brown on my sand doesnt look like slime or anything so I don' t think its cyano. I just cant get it to go away and it makes the sand ugly.

I have 0 Nitrate and 0 phosphate.. I'm not sure why I'm not getting any of those either. Seems like I should be getting a little bit here and there but only 1 time has my hanna test ever read phosphate higher that 0. My cheato in my fuge grows like a weed though. I throw handfulls of it away every 2 weeks or so. So I was always thinking that is what is keeping my nitrate and phosphate so low.

I also barely have any coralline. I have had 3 sizable live rocks ( about 7 lbs each) in my tank for probably 8 months now. And I only have 2 dots of corraline on powerheads and like 1 quarter size spot on my overflow. Is low alk causing my corraline to not grow? My corals seem to be doing fine with my parameters I just cant get coralline to grow for anything.

The reason you're reading no nitrate or phosphate is because the algae is consuming it. What you should do is determine where the excess nutrients are coming from whether it be overfeeding, to big of bioload, bad ro/DI water or not doing water changes enough, or not changing filter socks out enough. But sand sifting goby will only keep your sand stirred it won't consume the algae in it.

 

[Jason Collins]

I change my socks about every 3 days. I dont have too big of a bioload. I only have 2 clowns and 1 tang in tank right now. I feed once a day so if that is too much then I could cut back to every other day and try that. I could probably do more water changes... I only do them every 2 weeks. Every week is a pain since I have to do the old carry buckets from room to room deal. But I guess if it would make the tank better I can try it. Ro/DI water should be good... I guess I havent checked the output from my sytem in a few weeks. I just changed the first 2 filters about 3 or 4 weeks ago. It was reading 1 or 2 PPM before it went through the carbon back then. But I can check it again. So its looking like mainly... cut back to feeding every other day and see if I can do weekly water changes instead of Bi-weekly?

 

[cracker]

Consider getting a long stick & stirring the top of the sand. The algae is growing where nutrients are collecting. Stir it up a little. Your corals look nice & happy !

 

[Daltrey]

I use nassarious snails and a diamond watchman goby. Going to add another diamond watchman goby to help out. I also feed frozen twice a day. I don't run filter socks or do water changes (Triton).

 

[ectoaesthetics]

+1 for stir with a stick and reduce feedings a bit. I know it isn't the sexiest solution...

Little guys that stir up the sand (nass snails, crabs, ceriths -actually ceriths may help the most) will help a little, but not make a huge dent. A fish that filters the sand can certainly make a huge difference in keeping sand white, but can also clean you out of beneficial organisms in the sand bed.

 

[ncaldwell]

I run a piece of clear tubing and a pvc tubes off my manifold with a gate valve that I turn on low pressure and stir up the sand bed every couple days. Moves the sand around keeping it shinny white. Cost maybe 5 bucks since I had an open manifold slot already but I love it

 

[Xavierwally]

+1 for stir with a stick and reduce the amount of food you are feeding (only feed what you fish could eat only). Do you have any sunlight hitting you tank?

 

[anthonys51]

I have a tiger tail cucumber. It eats sand and poops it out all day long also could try a fighting counch

 

[CNDReef]

Fighting conch will definitely help, cerith snails also eat off the sand

 

[anthonys51]

I have had very low survival rate with cerith snails. My trochus snails breed but all my cerith die. No idea why. Fighting conch make sure you only get 1 or 2. Don’t get too many they need to eat a lot