I was cleaning my neglected sand bed today, getting empty snail shells out and stirring up detritus and cyano. There are large chunks in my sand bed, presumably from lack of stirring from me and my clean-up crew. Sand is about 2 inches deep in my BC 29.

I did a search on clumping of sand but didn't find anything. I know I need to beef up my clean up crew, I have a crab in my tank that I think is killing off all my snails. So I have been hesitant to invest in anymore right now.

From what I can gather from doing a search on sandbeds, it is ok to stir the sand as long as its not a DSB. So what causes this clumping and is it detrimental to my tank?

Thanks in advance.

Why don't you remove the crab?

Stirring the sand shouldn't be so bad, and you should regularly try to siphon detritus on it.

I stir the sand bed where it touches the glass once a week to keep it clean and algae free. Other than that most of my sand bed is covered with live rock or coral.

Turkey baster... Puff puff give. Oh got lost for a but! I do 1/4 of my sand bed each week with the w/c's. So all the sand bed is turned over once a month.