how does everyone keep their sand bed so white and clean?

tagraham · Jan 1, 2015

how does everybody keep their sand bed so white and clean?

Oscaror · Jan 1, 2015

Nassarius snails, diamond gobies

reeflover · Jan 1, 2015

Lots of water movement over the top of it. Keeps food from settling in dead spots eventually causing algae or cyano.

saltyhog · Jan 1, 2015

They vacuum it just before taking pictures. :bigsmile:

KorD · Jan 1, 2015

The conch stirs the substrate up for me a lot.

NanaReefer · Jan 2, 2015

Who's everybody?!! Lol

mikellini · Jan 2, 2015

Diamond goby. I have the cleanest sand I've ever had. Only downside is it's devoid of life, and I have to level the dunes out every once in a while.

sawdonkey · Jan 2, 2015

I vacuum my coarse sand about once per week. If not doing a water change, I put a filter sock in my sump and just run the vacuum through it. With this method, you can take your time with the vacuum and do a really good job. I also pull out any debris on the sand every few days. Sometimes I just stir up my sand really well. Note: I have a pretty shallow sand bed and doing what I said above with a deep sand bed would be disastrous.

Rudy16189 · Jan 2, 2015

Sand cleaner goby

afamousjohnson · Jan 2, 2015

saltyhog said:
They vacuum it just before taking pictures. :bigsmile:

Haha +1 - its like putting on makeup before a shoot. I always do a quick shoot with the tank after the sand looks nice and white but most the time behind the scenes my tank wears sweats and tho gorgeous can look dingy.lol
Good sand rustlers do help tho. Got a 2 foot cucumber rolling around in the 90 but he moves all the sand to the back of the tank which sucks but gives great dimension to the SB in spots.

upnext2002 · Jan 5, 2015

mikellini said:
Diamond goby. I have the cleanest sand I've ever had. Only downside is it's devoid of life, and I have to level the dunes out every once in a while.

+1 on Dimond gobys

Oscaror said:
Nassarius snails, diamond gobies

PaulKreider · Jan 5, 2015

I never syphon mine or anything, I have the Fiji pink and its been super white for nearly 2 years. Nassarius snails help keep the sand bed stirred up along with good flow stops detritus from settling. A finer grain sand will move around and stay clean where as a coarse heavy sand will start growing algae.

bobstir · Jan 6, 2015

photoshop

... j/k -- for the most part -- of course

I personally have a diamond goby and a couple fighting conches (they don't actually fight)

GOSKN5 · Jan 6, 2015

Who needs sand anyway... barebottom.. (I have a little sand here and there)

Yachtguy · Jan 6, 2015

My Pistol shrimp moves the sand around too much to get any build up the worst part is rocks keep moving due to the daily excavation not to mention the loud noise he has a watchman to help him at least the bottom is clean.

Z06-Hec · Jan 6, 2015

My golden head goby is amazing at cleaning the sand...
Unfortunately he is always throwing sand on my corals on the sand... they really dont seem to care much but it bothers me... I am in there all the time blowing the sand off with a baster but i swear in 30 seconds time of not looking there is sand right back on the same exact spot... its like hes telling me, stop un-doing my work!!!!
Im considering getting rid of him but am worried if anything can clean the sand as good as he does....
The rocks moving is another thing too... hes shifted rocks on me by removing the sand underneath...

Z06-Hec · Jan 6, 2015

GOSKN5 said:
Who needs sand anyway... barebottom.. (I have a little sand here and there)

thats bare bottom? LOL
i thought that was super white/clean sand without reading the post... LOL

GOSKN5 · Jan 6, 2015

I painted the bottom of the tank (underside) with textured spray paint... there is some sand around a few corals and some in the back behind an acrylic wall for wrasses to sleep...

143MPCo · Jan 6, 2015

worms, worms, and more worms...

Ep3n3wp · Jan 6, 2015

sawdonkey said:
I vacuum my coarse sand about once per week. If not doing a water change, I put a filter sock in my sump and just run the vacuum through it. With this method, you can take your time with the vacuum and do a really good job. I also pull out any debris on the sand every few days. Sometimes I just stir up my sand really well. Note: I have a pretty shallow sand bed and doing what I said above with a deep sand bed would be disastrous.

I like this idea... I'm gonna have to give it a go... Thanks!!