Cleaning the sandbed

Hello!

I am currently new to having a Reef Tank..

The current problem that i have and has been ongoing is to clean my sandbed. I do regular water changes about 20% each time and i use a siphon and suck out just above the sandbed, but my sand is always dirty and brown and has loads of crap on the bed. The bed can be clean for a day and the next, its dirty all again.

Is there anyway that i can have it clean for a longer period of time?
Would it be good if I topped up more sand??

Regards,
Kissawookie

 

Hmm – when you say that the sand is dirty the next day can you describe it? I suspect this is a new tank and you are referring to a diatom bloom (normal). Can you please give the age of the tank and further details. An established tank would require a cleaning crew and then we would need to explore the cause.

I do not touch my sand – I let a cleaning crew do the “dirty work”. How deep is your sand?

see here: http://www.wetwebmedia.com/diatomfltfaqs.htm

4-5 weeks of a new tank this is where you should be. If this is an already cycled tank we will need to talk about your make-up water and go down that road....

 

What size tank and how much flow do you have in it? A lot of times nasty looking sand and sedament build up can be caused by not enough water movement to keep the debris waterborn for long. If the debris is settling in a few specific areas you can try moving the powerheads around to keep the water stirred up.

Pictures and how big your cleanup crew would also help.

 

+1 If it's brown it's most likely to be diatoms and will die out in time on it's own,it's a natural part of your tank's new life.