Cleaning Or Changing Live Sand

[mellanby]

Hi all - the very bottom of my live sand is looking pretty dirty. Does anyone out there clean their sand, and how do you do it? Or do you just scoop out the dirty looking sand and replace it with new sand? I've got at 24 gallon nano-cube, about 22 lbs. of live rock, and 20 lbs. of sand. The tank has been up and running for 7 months now, with 2 black and white clowns and a bi-colored blennie. thanks

Mellanby

 

[SkiFletch]

Stirring your sand manually is usually a bad idea unless you and your corals enjoy dust clouds. Best way is to probably get some sand sifting snails like nassarius or cerith and have them do it for you slowly

 

[Matthew5664]

If you want to change you sand use a hose and siphon it up off the bottom. then the reverse to put it back add the sand to you SW before the WC and hold it higher that the tank and siphon it back to the tank bottom with minimal disruption. Oh! Turn your power heads off when you do it!

 

[DarrenUnwin]

Hi,

Best thing I found for keeping my sand bright and clean is a sand sifting starfish. He just moves around the sand all day, occasionally burying itself completely, (I'm told to hunt for food). Either way he does a great job and diddnt cost too much. Since I had him I havent touch the sand once.

Daz