Best way to clean live sand?

Discussion in 'General Reef Topics' started by TravisVT, Mar 1, 2013.

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  1. Ryan Duchatel

    Ryan Duchatel Millepora

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    I have a similar problem. My sandbed just never seems to stay clean. I vaccum it once a week but thats it.

    I was thinking a sleeper goby, but I have heard that they are pretty difficult to get to eat live food as well?
     
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  3. BoB123

    BoB123 Spaghetti Worm

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    Do not sture up a sand bed less than a year old you will kill the little worms and other tiny things that keep it clean, if your tank is only three months old than the litle worms won't be able to reproduce and your live sand won't be live anymore, just let it continue to use up all the nutrients until it dies off.
     
  4. Corailline

    Corailline Super Moderator

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    It is a dry heat, yeah right !
    The term "live sand" refers to the presence of nutrifying bacteria.
     
  5. Daniel072

    Daniel072 Giant Squid

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    Why leave the junk in your sanded if you can get it out. Depending on the sand, it could take a very long time for your tank to consume all of the silicates and other matter in the sand.
     
  6. Marshall O

    Marshall O Giant Squid

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    Correct, which is why I witnessed my Tiger Wardi eating pellets before I brought him home from the LFS. He sifts sand all day, but still is a pig at night when I feed everyone. If he did not eat prepared foods, I don't think he would be doing well at all.
     
  7. epsilon

    epsilon Feather Star

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    Because as mentioned you're
    1. disturbing the bacteria and critters that live in the sand.
    2. Running the risk of releasing some stuff into the water column.
    3. Eventually you'll have to add more sand as you're likely sucking up small amounts as you go.

    Things to do.
    1. Ensure parameters are spot on.
    2. Use only ro/di for top off and wc.
    3. Get a large enough cuc to handle the amount of detrious in your tank.
    4. Add a sand sifting creature in addition to your cuc.
    5. Do remove manually if algae has formed a mat on the sand bed. This is indicative of other trouble though that shouldn't be ignored by simply vacuuming it away.
    6. This is all for fine grain sand, may be different for crushed coral as it will be harder for critters to dig around in that. If you do vacuume cc only do a small section at a time.
     
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  9. TravisVT

    TravisVT Fire Worm

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    What do you suggest for a cuc with a predator tank? My tank currently has an eel, puffer and will likely have a dwarf lion and trigger in the future. What should I be running for a cuc that wont get eaten immediately?

    Epsilon - when you say remove algae manually - do you mean syphon it out? If so, how do you do this with out stirring up the sandbed??
     
  10. DevinH

    DevinH Montipora Capricornis

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    Trigger + lion = no no. The trigger will kill the lion and rip it's stingers off. The clean up crew you'll just still run what everyone else is but you'll need to replace it when you see it thin out which won't be frequently at all