Need advice on Cleaning Gravel

[LaRZuZ]

Hi all, my FOWLR tank has been up for about 4 months now.. there are some particles of dirt on the sand bed.. the particles include algae.. How do you guys normally clean up the sand bed? I tried those gravel vacuum equipment but it's not strong enough to suck up the dirt..

Care to share how you guys do it? Thanks.

[LaRZuZ]

Wow.. no response so far.. seems like no one needs to clean gravel unlike me..

[Guest]

I use sand shifting starfish to clean

This is a signature : hi

[SubzeroLT]

I have the Eheim battery operated gravel cleaner but i don't really like it. The filter isn't fine enough and kicks a lot back into the water.

I'm now using those siphon type gravel cleaner purchased from C328 (~ $15). Siphon weekly during water change to get rid of detritus.

For algae, as Guccivera mentioned, i have 5 sand sifting stars + 1 sea cucumber in my 3ft to get rid of algae on sand surface.

[leejwa]

Sea urchin, sea cumumber , hermit crab are the best cleaners!

[LaRZuZ]

Thanks guys for the advise.. I go get the sea cucumber and sand shifting stars..

[SubzeroLT]

I find that Sea Cucumber & Sand Sifting stars are best for diatom/brown algae on the sand bed while Serpent stars & hermit crabs best for left over chunks of frozen food.

[[V]tEc]

Hi all, my FOWLR tank has been up for about 4 months now.. there are some particles of dirt on the sand bed.. the particles include algae.. How do you guys normally clean up the sand bed? I tried those gravel vacuum equipment but it's not strong enough to suck up the dirt..

Care to share how you guys do it? Thanks.

Mind sharing your tank Size and how u changing water