sand

[basiab]

I have a 24 gallon aquapod and I set it up about 8 months ago using sand that was fine like sugar. It turned out to be a real problem because the sand blew around a lot and it was very hard to direct the water flow so that it would not blow the sand. Eventually it improved but there is still some amount of blowing and I can always see a dusting of sand on the rock up to six inches above the sand bed.
I also got some nasarius snails and small cerith. The nassarius did not last more than a few days. I even bought more a few months later and the same thing happend. Not sure if it has to do with the type of sand but I am suspecting it is the problem. The small cerith are doing ok. They do bury themselves in the sand but they are on the glass when the lights go out. No problems with the astrea snail but they don't spend time on the sand. And I do not see any signs of worms in the sand.
So I decided to change to some sand in the 2-4 mm range so right now I am slowly draining out my existing sand using an airline and gravity.
Any suggestions or comments would be appreciated.

 

[SevTT]

I also got some nasarius snails and small cerith. The nassarius did not last more than a few days. I even bought more a few months later and the same thing happend. Not sure if it has to do with the type of sand but I am suspecting it is the problem. The small cerith are doing ok. They do bury themselves in the sand but they are on the glass when the lights go out. No problems with the astrea snail but they don't spend time on the sand. And I do not see any signs of worms in the sand.
So I decided to change to some sand in the 2-4 mm range so right now I am slowly draining out my existing sand using an airline and gravity.
Any suggestions or comments would be appreciated.

It's not the sand that they're having problems with. I have fine calcium sand, too, and a flourishing population of all sorts of snails. If the snails died that quickly, I have to wonder about your acclimation technique. A large amount of flow may also be a problem if it keeps uncovering the nassarius snails, but, again, this sounds more like acclimation shock.

Have you innoculated your sand with live sand from a source that has worms and such? If not, that's why you don't have them, and that could be a contributing factor to sand blowing around and such.