a Good SandCleaner..

fishsticks

fishsticks

No clue about reefs
what little guy or anything i can buy thats good for cleaning the sand are gobies good? and what are the down falls and stuff like that for any of the little guys u mention..
just want the sand looking cleaner everything is fine i just want spectacular looking sand. haha
 
well for me i have a medium sized hermit crab that i call sarge hes always going throught the sand and clicking the glass as he walks by

between him and my sandsifting star my sand stays as white as snow
 
Downfalls of sleeper gobies is that you will have sand everywhere, like on top of your corals. Go with a sand sifting star. Beware that they are hunting the good stuff in your sand though.
 
The downfall in keeping gobies and sand sifting seastars is they consume the fauna(copepods,worms).The fauna themselves consume detritus,the gobies and sand sifting seastars don't.The sand will appear clean but sterile,void of any life.IMO,I believe our systems is too small to sustain a population of food for them,except maybe the smaller watchman gobies like the diamond.They stay small,readily accept frozen food like mysis.If you do choose some kind of sandsifter,look for one of the small goby species.
 
A better idea would be a conch and/or nassarius snails.They will actively stir the sand bed,keeping it clean.
 
some people use sand stars. I do mostly because I like to pick them up up and play with them every few days. My kids love them too. Just don't turn them upside down...tends to kill them.

I have had success with sifting gobies, but they do mess up the flat look to the sand but do keep it clean. They have a tendency to "carpet surf" and that can get expensive though. Up to you. Yote gave a good alternative about snails. Up to you really. Good luck

-Doc
 
the one thing about nassarius snails is that you would have to have a whole bunch of them. I have 8 in my 30gal and I dont even notice a difference on the top layer of my sandbed. In my 75gal FOWL I have a diamond head goby. He alone does a great job of keeping the sand clean. The only downfall to that is, as someone above stated already, is that if you do keep coral in the tank it will have sand particles settled on it. I usually have fine sand particles constantly in the water column throughout the tank...it doesnt really look bad but I notice it. But, that could also be caused in part by my lyretail wrasse.....he always dives on the bottom of the tank stiring up sand.
 
Nassarius snails are awsome! They do a great job of cleaning and moving the sand bed without distubing anything or bother any other tank mate.
 
Bifferwine said:
Nassarius snails all the way. Sand sifting stars tend to starve to death very quickly (most of the time).
Click to expand...

you know I have to give you crap about the fact that I have had the same three sifting stars for over three years. If they are starving to death....they sure are taking their sweet time...lol

-Doc
 
Doc said:
you know I have to give you crap about the fact that I have had the same three sifting stars for over three years. If they are starving to death....they sure are taking their sweet time...lol

-Doc
Click to expand...

What's your secret? How do they stay fed? I have heard from more than one source that stars are hard to keep.
 
I had two in my 150 and one in my 90 for about 2 years as well (now sold on with the systems, and to my knowledge still sifting - they seemed quite happy. I think the 'secret' is to ensure you have a setup that will produce enough food for them. They eat critters in the sand, when they are done, they come up to the surface, move to a new spot (possible detecting movement below them) then sink down and eat whatever is hiding out down there.
If you don't have a population of critters that can reproduce faster than the starfish (+ whatever you migh thave in your tank to compete for this food source) can eat them, then eventually supply will run out and something will starve.
So: either you have a big enough tank (with enough sand and rocks) or possibly a refugium to feed a steady supply of the right critters...
just my thoughts...
 
Well I use the word 'critters' to include a whole bunch of creatues living in the sand - ie. i don't really know :-) but I think they eat more than just 'pods', although I believe they eat living creatures, not muck...
I just did a quick search and most sites seem to come out about the same "It likes to eat benthic sand crustaceans like spaghetti worms, tube worms, copepods, amphipods and other sandbed infauna.. " http://marinedepotlive.stores.yahoo...-star---archaster-typicus-inverts--stars.html
 
same with me i think ive had my share of luck i stuck a sandsifter in my preeme tank (under 6 months) and his still sifting i get these looking things slightly larger than pods and the star seems to have a field day ive seen him sometimes on the glass wich is cool but mostly under the sand
 
I put one in my 30 gal that was a year old he it died withing about 2 months. The nassarius have not failed me. I have had 6 in my tank since shortyly after it cycled 2 years ago and I still have 5 one small one died for an unknown reason.
 
I have my ideas why they do so well. The trick is to keep them in a big tank. I have only 2 in my 125 and 1 in my 90. I wouldn't put one in a tank smaller than 55 gallons or so, just because they eat things so fast.

-Doc
 

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