Tank Envy

Hello. I’m shooting for creating a tank that really makes my friends and family sit and admire. I just cannot phantom how one cleans a tank like the one I have attached as an image. There isn’t enough room to siphon clean. Is it really just a matter of equipment at this point and pinpoint direction of power heads, filters, etc? I’d like to know some thoughts or experiences. Thanks! Shooting for the moon, but at this point I have a Radio Flier Wagon. How is this done?????
 

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fishyfish22

Premium member
as far as a clean substrate goes, making sure that there's flow around the rocks is the main key. You can see that there's no rocks piled against the wall, that means that detritus won't get trapped there.

I used to think it was total BS, and a cleanup crew was just another way for LFS to siphon money and would never pay 40 for a couple of snails. But a good CUC goes miles in keeping a sand bed clean. I use over one to two hundred Nassarius Snails, 2 small conches, and several pitho crabs. They keep my 4" DSB clean and free of algae, but at the same time my sand bed is so full of life; every inch covered in spaghetti worms, sphenoid worms, and pods . Try to stay away from sand sifting stars, they like to clean out all the good stuff in sand.

Just the other day, for example. I took out a rock that i'd had buried almost completely in the sand. I expected the horrible necrotic smell from stuff that was buried. What I got wasn't just no odor, rather the rock was actually clean on the bottom! the odor comes from bacteria that gets buried and killed, a good sand bed contains things to eat the bacteria.

Hermit crabs are usually the best to clean algae from rocks, then nooks and crannies. a tang helps too, I keep a 60 gallon Macroalgae tank plumbed with my 180 and haven't had a single algae takeover problem in the 180.

that being said, a fuge is also a great thing in order to help with nutrient control. You can use GFO to suck as many phosphates as you can from the water, but that also reflects on SPS and coral growth as they like some nitrates and phosphates in the water to grow.

Unless you run copper, Algae on the glass is always going to be an issue. You can use an algae scraper to fix it, I personally prefer using the Tunze Care Magnet since it doesn't have the pad that sand likes to get stuck under, it's entire contact on the glass is made through two blades that use pressure to scrape the algae off, also allowing it to clean up to and under the sand. Doing this about twice a week matters because the thicker algae gets, the harder it gets to scrape off and if you use a scraper, more pressure could lead to more or deeper scratches.
 

Sawdonkey

Premium member
There is no magic bullet to keeping a tank looking pristine. First, that tank doesn’t even appear all that clean to me. Usually when you see pics of tanks, people take them when tanks are looking their best and the other 90% of the time, they’ve got film algae on their substrate and glass.

Power heads can keep things stirred up so that mechanical filtration can get at it, but my substrate tends to get dirty from the same type of algae film that grows on my glass. Settling detritus doesn’t seem to be the problem. Keeping NO3 and PO4 low helps to slow down the buildup.

To keep my substrate clean, I do a water change once a month and siphon it and stir it up about once per week. Sometimes I put a filter sock in my sump and siphon the substrate through the sock. It’s like a water change without the water change.

The most important think in my opinion is simple elbow grease. A magnet cleaner is nice for touch ups, but you won’t get your tank totally clean unless you have a good scraper that gets in the cracks. I really hate the look of coralline on back glass, so I keep mine really clean. No way to do it except elbow grease.
 
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My question would then be how would the same be how does the sand get moved when it is cover by larger pieces of coral, or many pieces of large coral? Do you just rely on your clean up crew at that point?
 
Sorry hate auto fill on a phone.
My question would then be how does the sand get moved when it is cover by larger pieces of coral, or many pieces of large coral? Do you just rely on your clean up crew at that point?
 

Sawdonkey

Premium member
Sorry hate auto fill on a phone.
My question would then be how does the sand get moved when it is cover by larger pieces of coral, or many pieces of large coral? Do you just rely on your clean up crew at that point?
I don’t have much of a cleanup crew at all. Maybe two Mexican turbo snails and that’s it (my wrasse and triggers eat everything). I know that people swear by cleanup crews, but I think they’re overrated. I use a turkey baster or power head with a small hose on it to blow out under my rocks and corals from time to time.
 

fishyfish22

Premium member
Good cuc and bacteria are definitely helpful but @Sawdonkey hits the nail on the head, maintenance is the base 90% of keeping any tank clean and reef keeping in general. Water changes, balance, and patience are the best things you could provide a tank. You can have a tank with thousands of dollars worth of livestock and equipment barely get by, or a marineland lit 30 gallon look fantastic all depending on the level of attention and maintenance they get.

Everyone does things differently. I have noticed since introducing a cuc about a year that my sand bed looks cleaner, there's no more algae or brown spots on my sand bed as opposed to the macroalgae tank which hasn't had nassarius introduced to it yet and is growing algae on the sand. Both use the exact same lights, and they're a joint system so they have the same water and parameters. Both use the same sand too.

Glass algae is entirely on the maintenance and scraping, snails won't clean that off.
 
Actually you got a bunch of great advice here. I like to use a big clean up crew and this is a good reminder to restock. A good fuge works wonders, but isn't the end all be all. You still need to put some time in. As somebody said above, 90% of the time tanks aren't pristine but the better you are at taking care of Algae the easier it is to clean when people come over. Heres a nice picture of mine after a dose incident.
 

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