No you don't! I have special water. And my time goes at 1.2x faster

oh Marko.....lol

Steve

I just read your quote on my other post with your offer to quarantine.

1.Do I need to do this if:
the water parameters are staying consistant
It wasn't a new tank, just a transfer with prob 50% new water.
2.I was sold 4 orange spotted turbo snails yesterday to supposedly clean this up. In 2 1/2 days, they haven't come out from under the sand. I fished one out to make sure he was still alive. Was I sold the wrong snails?
3. Is the running joke here reffering to using distilled water as opposed to tap water?

No the joke is that it's normal and all you have to do is wait. It goes away on it's own

It sounds like Babylonia Snails to me, I have a few of them. 4 of them probably won't make a massive impact on your sandbed unless your tank is small. Diatoms will work themselves out after they've consumed the available food, should balance out. Moving a tank disturbs the sand and kicks up a lot of stuff usually which will cause a mini-cycle.

Personally if you want a good sand surface cleaner look into a few conches, they're my favourite for cleaning up.

Thanks for the help. Where can one find a conch in Edmonton?

as noted, this will go away all on its own in time

not required or recommended to buy commercial products to accelerate the process, use a turkey baster if it gets really heavy or way to unsightly

some people throw a frozen shrimp in the tank to help get things moving.....leave it in the tank until it is gone

Really? Chop it up or put in whole? And how will this work for algae? Do they just suck up the junk as its decomposing? Won't this lead to nitrate spikes?

I wouldnt recommend putting the shrimp in as you already have fish in the system....

Steve