POLL......Maintaining a clean white sand bed.

[todd22]

I currently have a 55 galllon tank with my primary cleaning method being a medium sized diamond goby and about 30 snails/hermits. I have been a little leary of the gobies effectiveness seeing some very bright white sand beds on these message boards. My sand bed stays about 75% clean from the goby, but he constantly stirs up detrius on my tank glass and rocks. I would like to hear from a number of people on:

1. what you use for sand cleaning.

2. how long has this practice been successfully used.

3. if using copepods, ampipods, ect.:
how long did it take to get the population high enough for thurough cleaning?
And while the pod population was growing did you leave the sand untouched covered in algae until the little guys worked efficiently enough?

Any input would be appreciated and nice pics of results are also very helpful.

Thanks

 

[ChumbawambaMan]

S E A C U C U M B E R

i had a terrible diatom problem, in which everything was covered it brown. the substrate was dark and murky and almost offensive.

but, then for 8 dollars, i went and bought a sea cucumber and well, its the greatest invention ever. works all day and night. eats and eats. and i love the lil booger. hes now growing algae on him, and as far as i know, hes a happy little guy. oh yeah. and my substrate its pearly white. i know hes not completely responsible for cleaning up everything, my tank did finally mature and clean itself of the diatoms, but he really helps big time.

 

[todd22]

thx for the quick reply,

do cucumbers eat pods?

what else do you have assisting the cucumber?

 

[ChumbawambaMan]

as far as the cucumber and its diet, its not choosey. it merely eats the ground infront of it. if there happens to be organic matter in there, he will eat it. im sure thats what sustains him.

i had many many many small little blue hermits and a few red hermits...but now theres only a handful of each left, and theyre great too. theyre the first to find and eat things that have died; snails and such. they eat food thats floated to the bottom, hidden from the fish, and keep my rocks free of detritus. i also have one large blue stripe legged hermit, and hes great and all, but i hate him. he kills my large algae eating snails, and well, sometimes i think just for the enjoyment of it.
other than that, ive got lots of little worm like things in my substrate, and tiny little white shelled things that come out at night. just extras off the live rock. i was afraid they all died in my move from arizona, seeing as how the sand was allowed to pretty much dry out, and for the entire 5 day trip it smelt like a rotting plethra of fish.
but, now 5 months later, its going strong and everything is functioning very well.

 

[Mouse]

DSB's can be maintained in many ways. Cucumbers are a very good way of maintaining algal and detreus buildup as are queen conches. As long as the inhabitants of the DSB are Herbivorous, necrovorious (spelling?) or detrevorious you dont have a problem. Diamond Gobys, sand sifting stars and the like will decemate DSB infauna such as Pods & worms redering them inaffective in self support. It would be difficult to say wether these animals affect the DSB's ability to convert Nitrates to Nitrogen gas in its Oxygen free zone, but the sand bed turnover is far more vigerous.

When a DSB is set up correctly, i.e. 4' - 5' inches of sugar fine Oolitic sand. The sand bed infauna will keep the bed clean by regularly turning the bed over and consuming orgainic waste and leftovers within. They also ensure a slow and steady migration of toxins towards the oxygen free denitrification zone below the surface. To ensure that some of this infauna has refuge from predatory critters in your system you have one of two options to bolster their numbers.

1) build a DSB or Mud refugeum.

2) construct "pod piles" from something like smashed up Porites coral skeletons, or other highly pourus rock.

Check out Dr Ron Shmeick's book DSB secrets, or do a search on the web.

 

[reefhope]

Another good one not yet mentioned is serpent stars. They pretty much stay hidden in rocks until food is released in the tank then they come out for leftovers and will help sift the sand with their movement.

 

[todd22]

Good info Mouse!

Could you give me some specifications on any other creatures that you may have to assist the infauna? Or how long it took for the bed to maintain itself? I have set up a 4' sand bed in my sump/refugium area for about 1-2 months, but I have not seen any signs of detrius cleaning on the sand. I know the bed is seeded with pods since I see quite a few in the main tank and have spotted some in the refugium area. Does it take much longer than a few months to see an improvement on the sand bed? I figure I will remove the goby when I see the sand bed in my refugium cleaner than the main tank.

 

[danmhippo]

After switching to DSB, I gave up employing gobies and such. I rely on the safest way to stir sand without decimating fauna population....................my fingers.

Moreover, if you have a pretty steady current sweeping across the sandbed, you shouldn't have any problems with detritus accumulating on the sand. If you have sump or refugium, that's where most of the detritus will settle.

 

[lionfish1]

I have a sand sifting star in my 110 gal and he keeps the sand clean as a whistle, the downfall of a very clean sandbed is less life in your sand bed, it digs itself in and out of the sand and once on the surface likes to move around on the sand bed till it finds a nice spot with food, sand is stired all the time, cya.

 

[MIKE NY1]

I have a couple of Queen Conches, a large cuke and also Cerith and Trochus snails. I don't use any fish like Gobies because they will eat the worms and other sand critters.