White Sand Bed??

Is it possible to have a white sand bed? It used to be so white and pretty and now its covered in coraline, every little shell and the whole depth of the sand bed in purples, browns, and neon green The first picture was only 3 months ago. I have a sand sifting star fish and like 10 nasuarius snails but they dont seem to go along the edge of the tank lol. Any suggestions to make it white or is this how a tank is supposed to look??

 

LOL White is the worst color for a sand bed IMO. I use a mix of black and white now, dosn't show all that stuff as much. I think even black is better really, although most people seem to disagree. A sand sifting gobby will work though, although some can be tough to keep alive because of their diets and they may cover your corals and rocks in sand.

 

I don't think that's coralline. I used to get it when my tank was newer, but as the sand bed got full of worms and some small black snails, it is barely noticeable. You can also use an old credit card to scrape the glass clean while not disturbing the sand too much.

 

Wonder what is it then? That picture is about a month old and most of the sand is a deep purple now. I will take a better picture when the lights kick on in an hour. Thanks

 

it could be a phosphate problem so test that then possibly add phosphate remover

 

I used black and white also my sand star and golden goby keep it nice and clean looking.

 

try a dimound goby. don't have to worry about him eating. he eats food for the other fish too. just make sure your rock is sitting on the glass bottom not sand.

 

Kristavi, IIRC, you don't have a fuge though right? Or am I thinking of someone else? The problem with many of the sandsifting gobies, in a small tank is they quickly consume all of the infauna and starve. They can be similar to mandarins in that regard. So, really it's best to have a fuge, to keep the population going. They certainly can keep the sand clean though, if you can keep them alive.

 

Why keep the rock on the glass not the sand?

 

any sandsifter can create a hole big enough to shift a rock which could tip over breaking the front/back/side glass and the whole thing could come crashing down eventually giving you an indoor pool. if the rock is on the glass it's less likely to tip over.