sand vacuum?

[Mephistopheles]

What is a good way to keep the sand bed clean in my tank? it's a 40 gallon cube with only about 1 - 1/2 inches of sand. It's got 1 damsel and only 2 lbs of lr so far that I put in 2 weeks ago but the sand bed is getting full of all sorts of stuff (looks organic to me). I've already started feeding less. Is there a way to filter it out or something?. I was thinking of getting a cleaning shrimp, will that help? maybe a snail but I don't know anything about snails and it seems to me it would have a hard time manuevering around on the sand. It's not a huge deal right now but I can't imagine it getting anything but worse from here. The tank has been fully cycled for probably a month and a half now.

 

[Anemoneman]

Snails have no problems moving on the sand but they prefer the glass and rocks. Cleaner shrimp are an excellent idea. 1/2 dozen are not too many. Your sand will never be pristine white though. It will always have organic material in it. Hopefully worms and critters will live in it. Sometimes cyanobacteria will grow in and on it. Coraline will coat individual grains of sand. It won't be white but it should look natural.

 

[Brisc0]

Its a pretty natural part of the process, about 6 weeks into my cycle you couldn't even see the white sand for all the blooming i had, it will naturally work its way out over another 6 - 8 weeks most likely. Make sure your mixing salt with RO/DI and that your topping off with it to. You have to keep the Phosphate in check so it does not fuel any algae. Also if you don't have good flow on your sandbed your more likely to have algae growth on it. You could also add a fuge with some macro algae at this point to promote the growth there and keep it out of your main tank. Not 100% effective for cyano, but works like a champ for green and red slime.

Best of luck

 

[kreach]

Snails have no problems moving on the sand but they prefer the glass and rocks.

It actually depends on the type of snails. Nassarius snails and conchs are snails that spend most of their time on and in the sandbed. Cerith snails are also good snails for helping keep your sandbed clean.

Mephistopheles: What I would recommend is getting a mixture of nassarius and cerith snails and one or two fighting conchs.

 

[kreach]

Deleted double post...