What should i use to clean my sand?

[Radioheadx14]

Right now, i have around 8 cerith snails and 12 nassariaus snails in my 75g tank with around 80lbs of LR. I plan on adding corals later so i want everything to be reef safe. My question is:

What would be a good sand cleaner? I have light diatoms (some yellowy brown areas, nothing horrible) and some red cyano (my tank has been cycled for about 3 moths now) My sand bed is around 1-2" depending on the location. I just added a small 2.5 gallon fuge so the diatoms and red cyano my go away.

I was thinking of getting more nassarius(sp?) maybe a sand sifter goby or maybe some sort of sea star/brittle star as long as they are reef safe. Any suggestions?

[Acillaton]

More water flow, less phosphate and less light will help...good luck.

[harryk]

I have half the snails you do in my 75 and i've never had a problem. Just let your tank mature some more. 3 months isn't that long in this hobby. your tank will go thru some changes and it probably wont be really stable for 6 months to a year. Just keep up with the water changes and check your phosphates and nitrates. keep them in check and you should be ok

[papagimp]

I'm with harry on this, I've got about 1/2 of what you do and algae isn't a problem. I wouldn't add more nassarius, they don't eat algae or anything, just meaty foods. They will help to stir the sandbed but won't derive any food from it unless it happens to be laying around, such as leftover food that the fish missed. More cerith would probably do better. Cyno and algae at around 3 months seems normal-ish, I would just follow the previous advice and keep up with water changes and keep an eye on water quality. A 2.5 g fuge IMO won't really do to much to help other than keep a supply of pods in the tank, small supply at that.

[Radioheadx14]

I dont think i need more flow... i have 3 hydors 2's in my tank and if i point them at the sand the sand blows everywhere, there is still flow on the sand... i can see stuff "blow" around the bottom.

[papagimp]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=11241463#post11241463 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Radioheadx14
I dont think i need more flow... i have 3 hydors 2's in my tank and if i point them at the sand the sand blows everywhere, there is still flow on the sand... i can see stuff "blow" around the bottom.

that's about 23 x turnover rate. Right around the minimal recommended, so their plenty of room for more flow. I have 2 Koralia 3's and a mag 12 running on my 75g. And yes, if I point my powerheads at the sand it'll blow around everywhere too, ya don't just point them at the sand, you increase flow in the tank and that'll increase flow around the sand.

If i had to take an educated guess, I'd say this was just the tank maturing but more flow certainly wouldn't hurt.

[capn_hylinur]

I would take a turkey baster, once or twice a week and lightly baste the rocks and the surface of the sand. This will stir up phosphates, nitrates ect into the water coloumn where they can be filtered off
(probably easy to use the family turkey baster for the next year and never be noticed-LOL

[capn_hylinur]

diatoms and cyano at the three month period are really nothing to worry about---the live rock probably has not fully cured yet and is contributing to higher phosphate levels

if you have cyano and algae then you have higher phosphate levels. This is the time to look at your flow setup and filter system.