Dirty Sandbed

[Cap'n]

Been hearing recently that a good, self-sustaining sand bed does not need sifter stars or fish to keep it healthy and clean, so I did not mourn the loss of my star. Now my sand is filthy and the only movement within it is from the conch. What should I do?

[Aquattro]

Sand sifting stars sift the sand in search of food. They eat the bugs that are needed to sift the sand. So now that your star died, it has already cleaned out the critters that are supposed to sift the sand.
Probably just need time to re-establish a poplulation of bugs in the sand.

[Cap'n]

What are the quickest and easiest ways to speed and encourage this process?

[AJ_77]

Buy some new quality live rock, and get a cup or 2 of live sand from someone with some to spare. Do you run a refugium?

What kind of filthy is your sandbed? Scarlet Reef hermits continuously work the sand, IME.

[Cap'n]

No refugium or sump.
Have not added any new live rock in close to a year, not a whole lot to start with.
Yeah, I need more hermits, but all the new ones I add fall victom to Conan, a hermit I have had since I got the tank a couple years ago.
I have always used stars or gobies to help keep the bed clean but want a more self-sustaining system. Tank is going through growing (and learning) pains.
Dirty. Detritus and stuff settles on the floor where it remains.

[AJ_77]

Lose Conan now, and get a bunch of Scarlets. Some more rock will help. What do you use for mechanical filtration? Sounds like you need some better water movement, too. How much and what kind is going on in there now?

[Cap'n]

I use an Eheim canister and an Aquaclear 500 hang-on and skimmer for filtration. Think I have lots of water movement - powerhead 801 and 301 plus the two filters. Took me a long time to get all these set in the right place for sufficient current and few dead spots. Pretty happy with it now.
Been hanging on to the big hermit for the big fish-only tank, but since I don't have the tank yet I guess I should get Conan a new home.

[Quagmire]

Conan might be happy in a 10g until you get the big tank

[Beverly]

I use an Eheim canister and an Aquaclear 500 hang-on and skimmer for filtration. Think I have lots of water movement - powerhead 801 and 301 plus the two filters.

How often do you clean the filter media in your canister and 500? The more often they are cleaned, the more crud they can pick up. You can also turkey baste the sandbed lightly, as well as the rock and corals, to get the crud up into the water column where the media in your filtration systems will remove some of it. After the tank clears, thoroughly clean the media.

I have sumpless, refugless tanks and this is how I keep my sandbeds relatively clean. Usually do the basting, cleaning thing twice a week in problem tanks.

[Cap'n]

Did the baster thing today, that's what prompted the thread. Probably should be cleaning my filters more often, especially the canister. But I do neeed something else in the substrate, some kind of a cleaner boost.

So I just got home from a late evening with friends and my girlfriend, fiance, asked me what that was that the cat was playing with, and hey, it just moved! Conan must have heard of the beginning of the end and was making a run for it. First time that has happened to me. Can't believe the timing.

[Cap'n]

Found Conan on the floor again tonight. Took a good close look and think he's the only crab in there now. Maybe he's hungry!
Anybody have any good, cheap suggestions for purchasing / ordering a janitorial crew? Been considering this for a while.