Dirty sand bed. How can I clean it up?

[Troy F]

Hi Patrick, depending on the size of your sand bed, I'd recommend a fighting conch or two. They do an excellent job keeping the sandbed clear in my 155gal.

[BCReefer]

a small pitaful 33G.

Anyone feel sorry enought to lend me a 90G with lighting and a stand? :D

[Tau2301]

The fighting conchs are the best bet. They took care of my brown slime problem and the top of the sand has never looked better.

[Troy F]

As long as you have enough open sand, your 33 should support a fighting conch. Just try not to get a queen by mistake. From what I understand, the queen grows quickly.

[StirCrazy]

for a guid line you want at least 1 square foot of open sand bed for a fighting conch.. I have 2 of them and they clean up my 92 gal in less than a week. one thing you might find is once and a while they will dissapear for a week to 2 weeks and when they come out they will be bigger than befor (at least thats what mine do) the problem is when they do disapear you get a dirty sand bed again :D but they clean it fast when they come back out.

Steve

[BCReefer]

Over the past few months my sand bed seems to be getting darker, like there it is dirty. It is hard to explain. When I look at other websites I always see a nice clean sand bed. I only have about 4 – 5 small blue legged hermitts and 10 snails which I thought would be enough?? I am not the biggest fan of the hermitts as they can be aggressive from my experience.

I usually check my parameters every month and I have not noticed anything wrong other than my calcium is becoming lower quicker.

My Bak Pak was out of commision for about 2 weeks and my water was getting a little green so I have increase the water changes and fixed the skimmer. My water is clearer but the sand is still a little dark.

Any suggestions? I tried taking pictures but they don’t really show what I am talking about.

I am using coraline crushed corals for my sand bed and it is about 1.5 to 2” deep.

Thanks
Patrick

[sumpfinfishe]

I use a couple of yellow watchmen gobbies in my small reeftank. They do an excellent job picking up any loose food, and also sift a good layer off the top of the sandbed. The hermits will take care of the rest! Goodluck, sff ;)

[Troy F]

Problem with sand sifting fish is that, in very short order, they decimate the fauna and infauna of your live sand bed.

[BCReefer]

Thanks I will get a fighting conch. I have many corals including 2 brains on the sand. Will there is be any problem there?

Thanks
Patrick

[Troy F]

I don't think so Patrick.

[reefburnaby]

Hi,

I would recommend some conches, True nassarious snails and maybe a cuke. These animals either eat stuff off of the sandbed surface or the stir the sandbed so that it can be processed by the sandbed.

- Victor.