How to keep sand white?

[Red2143]

My tank currently has very little algae but over the course of the week the sand bed starts getting brown. It's not a full out dino/diatom outbreak.

Mixing the sand helps for most of the day. Sand vacuuming with water change helps for about a day. What else can be done to keep sand white?

 

[TX_REEF]

how old is your tank? Water parameters, powerheads and cleanup crew, especially sand stirrers (nassarius snails, fighting conch, sand sifting stars, certain gobies) will help.

 

[SunSill]

If the tank is new i think it is mission impossible to have white sand. CUC will help to deal with algea, but you cant skip ugly stage(OK maybe pro guys can skip, but all others will face it). Here is my tank after almost 3 months. Dealing with some GHA on hardscape and sand.

 

[BAMatter]

Diamond sleeper goby once your sand bed is mature will keep it nice and clean. I have them in all my tanks.

 

[Peair]

Diamond sleeper goby once your sand bed is mature will keep it nice and clean. I have them in all my tanks.

What I do for a quick fix if I have people coming over is just add more sand.

 

[Red_Beard]

constant turnover is really all there is. you can either do this manually or employ help ala sand sifters. Diamond watchman gobies are professionals, but get a little rowdy with the sand sometimes, and other sand sifting fish. Cucumbers will turn it over, as will conchs and nassarius snails, but not as thoroughly. If you don't have space etc you could get a coral feeder tube or any other longish thinish tubishly shaped aparatus and manually stir the sand on the reg, like with every glass cleaning.
my watchman kept that sandbed sparkling white, but also liked to redecorate. i figured it was a fair tradeoff. "you work hard little dude, i will let you handle the occasional remodel and not moan about any sandstorms."

 

[BAMatter]

What I do for a quick fix if I have people coming over is just add more sand.

No don’t do that. Don’t worry about the people coming over. Clean your glass and call it a day. I assure you they’re not going to leave because the sand is dirty.