keeping pure white sand

[vic5hands]

get a small horse shoe crab . it will keep the sand stirred

 

[Best Fish-Jake]

I think you mean nassarius snails?

Cerith snails are also sand sifters that are good at eating detritus

 

[Best Fish-Jake]

I stir the top layer daily and vac every water change I always get a brown layer latter in the day

That's to be expected if you have lighting, nutrients in the tank, and algae currently in the system

 

[Marinedoc]

a sand sifting starfish, diamond goby and a round goby( bulldozer) and my sand like new in my 300 gallons tank

 

[Katrina71]

Is algae bad in your sand? I like the look. I don't mean over run, just tufts here and there.

 

[2Wheelsonly]

You really need to test for silicates. Typical RODI systems don't remove them even after 0 tds.

They make special silica remover membranes mixed with di resin.

My diamond watchman goby keeps my sand very clean and white but the trade off is sometimes the water is cloudy due to him sifting around so much.

 

[saltyfilmfolks]

I agree with your point about not being able to rinse off the bacteria. However, unless you are on well water with no chlorine, the not washed off bacteria will be dead from the chlorine if you are using tap water.

Nope.

You are welcome to come to my house and try it. My water even smells of bleach and will kill a gold fish. I found out sadly because I bought several gold fish for the kid.

And in fact I can show you tank I did it it to.

It won't kill all off it in that low a concentration

 

[saltyfilmfolks]

This is what I do... mine stays absolutely spotless:

Lol. I've tried convince folks of this for some time now.
Great video. It is just that easy.

 

[dburkart]

I second the method Broadfield uses, this has helped me immeasurably. It works wonderfully, and is easy to boot.

 

[don_chuwish]

I've done as Broadfield demonstrates too - in my previous 36B tank. For the 120G that would a a LOT of bulb squeezing and some areas would be tough to reach. I've considered modifying a canister filter to simultaneously stir sand and filter water - make a long wand for the outlet and just hang the inlet in the tank. But yeah, lots of answers here going for the same basic problem - get the crud OUT of the sand. I also like the idea of just siphoning out a bunch at a time, right down to the glass, and rinsing clean before putting back in. Garden hose full blast in a bucket makes quick work of the rinsing. I'd probably do a final rinse with RO just to dilute out the tap water a bit.

 

[Nohate]

Conch

 

[Katrina71]

Conch

Are conch ok with macro, softies, and zoa? We have a tiny 8 gallon.

 

[stevieduk]

well as the title states how does everyone keep there sand so dang clean. this is my 5th tank and no matter what within a few days of cleaning the sand it always has a brown layer on top. yes yes I know what are my paramaters and how old is the tank it must me something I'm doing lol well your wrong there spot on always have been so just curious how everyone is keeping there sand so nice looking

mine is the same, I just leave it for my tang to feed on

 

[Nohate]

Are conch ok with macro, softies, and zoa? We have a tiny 8 gallon.

They are but not in such a small tank.... No way, they move around with a foot... They walk.... So are ungainly, they won't hurt anything on purpose but by nature of how they move, they need room to get around, sand vacuums thiugh

 

[saltyhog]

I have 5 conchs in my 72x24 tank and they do not begin to keep the sand clean. I've used the turkey baster method but the Reef Gardener tool is much faster for me. Takes about 3 minutes to do the whole tank and I have a fairly open sandbed.

 

[brandon429]

agreed

for the animals that live in and on the sand, the active ones like gobies are the ones cleaning because they are casting their own waste and floc into suspension where other means relocates it and in our tanks mechanical filtration hopefully catches it

the snails and the worms and the burrowing starfish are all contributing whole waste pellets deep into the sand, they are biodiversity but unhelpful in terms of actually turning over a bed because they can't kick up waste quicker than they deposit it. they're eating microlife forms in the bed... so to stock them is a slow transition from bug to slug imo but its not bad at all, we're always causing various population shifts in our tanks its all part of the study. horseshoe crabs do both, eat the diversity and work fast enough to kick up the waste. plus they're bluebloods and ancients who doesn't want one.

 

[sgrosenb]

This is what I do... mine stays absolutely spotless:

Hi @Broadfield reviving an old thread here. looks like this video is unavailable. Can you explain what it was if you remember? Thanks!

 

[brightlifeaquaculture]

Hi @Broadfield reviving an old thread here. looks like this video is unavailable. Can you explain what it was if you remember? Thanks!

@Broadfield

video unavailable for me too

 

[CoralB]

A good UV light , competing good bacteria, and siphoning the sand when doing water changes should work but it will take time , maybe a week to a few weeks.

 

[Uzidaisies]

I think you mean nassarius snails?

My Ceriths dig into the sand sometimes. Bury themselves completely.