Cleaning procedure for fine sand bed

The River Reef

Non-member
I recently change from crushed coral to fine aragonite sand bed. It is shallow, about 1-2" in height. I recently did a water change and quickly realized no matter how carefully I tried I couldn't siphon the detrius off the bottom like I did with the crushed coral. I do not have good movement on the sand bed in fear of blowing it all over the place. How do you maintain a clean fine sand bed in your tank? I was thinking of blowing off the rocks with my turkey baster and just catching as much junk as possible in the siphoned water... any tips are appreciated. The bottom is starting to accumulate allot of junk :(
 
I use sand sifters to keep my fine sand clean. I have 2 sand sifting stars, a sand sifting goby, 2 regular brittle stars, a large green serpent star and a bunch of sand sifting snails.
 
nassarius snails are good for me. I also make sure to have really good water flow across the bed.
 
I've got good flow on mine, along with nassarius snails and a banded sleeper goby. He does a fantastic job without completely demolishing your sandbed and even devoured some cyano I had a little while back.

Sent from my PC36100 using Tapatalk 2
 
Okay, I appreciate the feedback and it makes sense. I have 4 hermits, 2 astrea snails, 1 skunk shrimp... so no sand sifting CUC. I wanted to add a goby or some sort of bottom dwelling fish to my livestock. So might as well order or buy some new CUC members at the same time. What would you recommend for CUC additions? And I want to try a new source for livestock... I only know of Tropical Isle in my area and let's just say I would like to explore some more.
 
I am going to upgrade my CUC to include some inverts that will clean and stir my sand bed. Any recommended combinations? I was thinking: 2- Snails (what kind?), 1- Sand sifting starfish. What else works well? And I want to add a goby of some sort, maybe a goby shrimp pair. I would love some feedback from people that have made this stock choice. Thanks :)
 
Back
Top