How do you keep your sand clean?

I was actually just contemplating this very question...thanks for the perfectly timed poll Matt! I went out and bought a Scooter Blenny to aid in the sand bed cleaning process. I also have a few snails and hermits and a Coral Banded and Emerald (see signature). I seem to just get some greenish junky build-up (not algae but just die-off) in one spot of the tank...I think its a dead-zone where my power head doesn't hit too much...maybe I should switch the power head around and try stirring it up a bit!

-Mike

 

That is so funny Dx, I was just reseating my torch yesterday after one rode it to the tank floor, and it looked a little like Slim Pickins in Dr. Strangelove, LOL. They have to mess and poke around with every new thing I put in there. And the bigger one is toting around a conch shell on his back about the size of a racquet ball. I call them thing 1 and thing 2.

 

Chris wrote:

:LolLolLol :yelrotflm

I'm just waiting for "Blue" to move into the 3" shell I put in there...I'm sure he will. He has a couple of hitchhiking xanthid crabs in the refugium to keep him company. I have cabbage coral in the display that "Blue" constantly knocked off its rock..had to glue it down and this things a pretty big leather. So it was off to the 'fuge for ole Blue!!

Drew

 

Good question. They (I have 2) are dull mustard yellow and kind of spikey. eTropicals used to have them, but I see they only have the tiger tails right now. I think they are the most common ones you will find ... certainly nothing fancy. They are good workers, though. They eat the sand and (cough) "deposite" it in clean white piles/trails. After a day or two the sand settles back flat and looks good as new.

Just stay away from any 'cuke that's pretty! The colorful ones are toxic and can wipe out a tank if something goes wrong. (If they die, for instance! )

 

Thanks!;D

 

I am here in Tampa bay so I went to the ocean by the breakwall and collected a bunch of snails Don't know what kind they are but they keep the glass clean, as for the sand I have to stir it up a bit and clean the filters once a week to keep it clean. This is a good thread got some ideas I need to work on to make it less work for me.