Cleaning the sand bed...

tecster93

New Member
Does anyone have a great way to clean your sand substrate(of little debris like pieces of tiny rock and other discolored pieces)? any devices that work well or techniques? any advice would be a great help... 'Tanks'...
 

philgmiami

Member
Originally Posted by tecster93
Does anyone have a great way to clean your sand substrate(of little debris like pieces of tiny rock and other discolored pieces)? any devices that work well or techniques? any advice would be a great help... 'Tanks'...
get some star sifters and horseshoe crabs(small ones)the horseshoe crabs come out at night like bull dozers and turn your sand up side down, leaving clean paths
 
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thomas712

Guest
I have a 5 gallon bucket with some southdown that I have in old tank water, if necessary on occation I will syphon some of the top layer of my sandbed and use the precured stuff in the bucket to add a new top layer. This isn't something I do very often though. I just wind up sometimes like you said with some bigger pieces of live rock that has fragmented off the larger pieces, as well as small snail shells and other debris, and I only preform this in the front of the tank to keep it nice looking.
Thomas
 

glnzoffun

New Member
sifting sand stars and I believe sand-sifting gobies (not sure on the gobies though).
How about cleaning a crushed coral substrate? I have hermits and turbos, maybe not enough? Any advice would be appreciated.
 
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thomas712

Guest
Just a warning but sand sifting stars could be death to a sandbed, they will eat all the pods and little critters necessary to keep a sandbead healthy.
 
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thomas712

Guest
Originally Posted by glnzoffun
How about cleaning a crushed coral substrate? I have hermits and turbos, maybe not enough? Any advice would be appreciated.
The best single thing you can do for a crushed coral bed is to remove it entirly. Believe me I know. (there are many many reasons for this)
The second thing you can do is to vaccum the living heck out of it and do frequent water changes.
 
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