Do you clean your sand bed?

[justinl]

I have yet to see a shallow sand bed that has gone anoxic and developed the black patches in it. As far as I know, it's only a problem with a DSB.

[Myka]

I've seen 1" sandbeds with black patches.

Nassarius snails aren't usually good enough to clean the sandbed, but they do help. If your tank is 50 gallons or more you could consider a small conch. They need a lot of food though, so you need a fair sized sandbed to provide them with enough food. They are good in the sandbed because they eat bad things, and leave good things.

Personally, I think any sandbed requires quite a bit of maintenance to keep it in top shape, so I would agree and say that if your critters aren't doing the job 100% that you should help out with siphoning, and at least stirring the top 1/2" or so. If you do start stirring though, don't be surprised if you have a bit of an algae bloom for the first few weeks you start since you will be releasing a bunch of crap stuck in the sand.

[goby1]

I guess everyone's situation is different. My tank is 5 years old with a 2-3 inch sandbed and I never touch it. I have narcisse snails (probably about 10) and a sand sifting starfish. Recently I had to replace my tank and was told that I should probably put in a new sandbed which I did. Much to my surprise, the old sandbed looked as white and clean as the day I put it in with no odor other than that of a beach. There were no green or black patches. I was surprised and thought that I probably should have just kept the old one but so far so good.

[mandarin man]

I have seen conches from LFS, about 1 to 1.5inches. I know there are two types of conch- fighing and strawberry conch. How you do distinquish them? Which on you prefer? My tank is a 34 gallon, I prefer the one that stay small.

I have heard that conch kill snail in the tank . Is this true?

[Myka]

If a conch kills snails, then it is not a conch, but more likely a predatious Whelk. There are many different types of conch; Strawberry, Fighting, Orange Lip, and Tiger all stay smallish. Queen conches (and a couple others) get very large. I've had Fighting and Orange Lip, and I would say they are pretty equal.