Unrealistic Expectations - Sand/Substrate

ltkenbo

ltkenbo

Reefing newb
Is it unrealistic to hope that the sand on the bottom of the tank will be white, or at least close to it? I have 3 koralia two powerheads, a penguin 550, an aquaclear and the sump return line for flow. Everything else seems to be pretty good. I even got some Nass snails last weeks. However, the sand always seems to be a little dark. It's not detrius, that doesn't really settle much anymore now that my flow is good. Maybe it's brown algae, I dunno. How can I help this?

Here's a pic:
DSC06118.jpg
 
it's tough, all you can do is hope. The only time my sand is white is when my powerheads are moving my sand aroound
 
Well I just want to make sure nothing is wrong. Does anything look wrong or is this an indicator of something bad?
 
Looks like a little bit of nuisance algae....
I'd say it's unrealistic to expect the cross-section view (as in the part you can see from a side-view through the glass) to be clear, but with a good clean-up crew, low nutrients ( = low nuisance algae), and patience, the sand can be fairly white.

I've found the best thing to really clean the sand are my hermits, they pick it nice and clean. I also have some nassarius snails to stir it up a touch. I wouldn't recommend a sand-sifting star.
 
The reddish stuff is cyano, which is from high nutrients, as is the green algae.
Do you use RO/DI water for top offs and water changes?
How often do you do water changes and how much do you change?
Have you tested nitrate and phosphate?
Do you run a skimmer and if so, what kind?
Do you run any GFO for phosphate removal?
 
Many of the sleeper gobies are excellent at moving the sand around and keeping the algae off/out of it. The diamond and railway are the earth movers, while the smaller dragon will still get the job done, just a lot slower.

FSRailway001.jpg


FSDragon.jpg



A brittle star may help for a little while, but they can quickly run out of food in the sand bed. They are not always easy to feed. Fish (like gobies) can be easily supplemented with ordinary prepared foods. I feed mine mysis. My 2c.
 
Last edited:
It looks normal to me, in due time the tank will become more established, but for now, its gonna go thru the various algae stages. All you can really do is up your cuc and wait it out.
 
+1 andysgirl on the sand sifting goby idea.

That's what I finally did... got a diamond goby 3 days ago, and he's just about cleaned out all my sand... in a 6' tank. And my sand was far worse than that! Best of all, him and my watchman get along just fine.
 
Strawberry lipped conches do a service very similar to sand sifting starfish without killing off all the creatures in your sand.
 

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