xsdbs, that's a good question. Also, would it help to stir the sand and then do a 50% water change, since the phosphate goes back into the water column then it would remove some of the phosphates that been in the sand. I apologize for my ignorance, just trying to learn.
brown algae
- Thread starter xsdbs
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Powerheads blowing sand around can raise phosphate concentration, especially if it disturbs a previously settled deposit. If you keep a relative configuration of water flow, the sand will eventually settle in a stable location. Any significant alteration will sort of reset the process, though.
I don't really recommend stirring at all--not manual stirring, anyway. You should rely on a good number of worms and even smaller organisms to accomplish that for you. Good diversity and good flow across the sand bed will ensure a significantly longer life in the sand bed. Phosphate reduction in the water column also goes a long way in helping with this.
I don't really recommend stirring at all--not manual stirring, anyway. You should rely on a good number of worms and even smaller organisms to accomplish that for you. Good diversity and good flow across the sand bed will ensure a significantly longer life in the sand bed. Phosphate reduction in the water column also goes a long way in helping with this.
How do you know if you have enough stuff in the sand to keep these worms, sifting snails or sifter starfish to keep them alive and not dying under the sand, this can cause issue too correct? I have had about 6 sifter snails ( I forget the exact name ) and use to see them alot, lately I only see 1or 2, I also had 3 starfish and recently had 1 die. It was on top of the sand and my wife asked about it, yeah it was dead and I was lucky enough to be able to get him out of the tank. My tank is 150 gallons and area is 60 in x24 in x 24 in if these measurements will help to know how many is too much. Thanks again for your help
I only recommend certain snails. Ceriths tend to be the best in terms of helping the sand bed (smaller ones). Starfish are hideously destructive, consuming much of the life in the sand beds. You'll know if there are a lot of critters. There's no set amount--just shoot for a lot. My sand bed probably has several thousand rice-grained sized rissoid snails.
My bad. Like I said earlier, they are about the size of rice grains and they generally rise out of the sand (like ceriths and Nassarius) at night. You generally get them from good live sand (not the bagged kind) or some rock that has some on it.
They look like this, but tiny:
They look like this, but tiny:
Some LFSs carry it and some online retailer should also carry it. Haven't bought any in a while, though, so you'll have to browse.
