Cleaning sandbed?

[Mudzie]

When doing water change & wanting to clean live sandbed i know ive been told not to disturb it,but really to clean junk off the bottom it seems difficult not to somewhat, what about little patches if hair algae?

[carey]

I will just skim the top of the sandbed if there is anything there to suck up but usually the circulation within the tank keeps most debris off my sand. What you don't wanna do is stick the tube down into the sand and swirl around. But just the surface should be ok, especially to get algae off.

[joy13]

What I do is wave my hand over the area so the stuff flies up and I get it that way. I only do a small section at a time not the whole tank. The hair algae if there is any I just pull out.

[Gti_Leo]

look into a few sand sifting fish or snails, they keep the sand bed nice and clean. i've yet to clean mine in almost a year

[Mudzie]

Thanks for the help. Thought about starfish but heard theyre kinda hard to keep?

[Gti_Leo]

well a sand sifting star is, a brittle or serpent star are extremely easy and are reef safe

[Mudzie]

Ive seen a couple of very small what look like brittle starfish a few times within liverock in my tank but i guess they dont get very big?

[Gti_Leo]

brittle stars can get to abotu 8 inches

[melosu58]

Nassirus snails are good for your sand bed. Try some of them.

[Mudzie]

Dont know for sure but isnt there some called mini brittle starfish? Not sure how big they get if thats what these hitchikers are but sure looks like it?

[leftyfish]

Sand sifting stars and gobies will eat the creatures you are trying to grow in the sandbed. If you don't have any fish that require pods, then those are fine for a sandbed, if you do, then stick with snails, like nassirus snails as melosu58 mentioned, they are awesome to watch.

[Mudzie]

Got about 10 nassarius snails, more in 75? Theyre pretty wild to watch come up out of sand at feeding time like dinosaurs.

[Ricksreef]

Originally Posted by Mudzie

When doing water change & wanting to clean live sandbed i know ive been told not to disturb it,but really to clean junk off the bottom it seems difficult not to somewhat, what about little patches if hair algae?

You can siphon loose stuff by using one half inch plastic tubing ,just keep it right above sand bed.
Your goal should be to not need to by using sufficient cleanup crew,good water flow and not overfeeding.