best sand stirrers

[fishnut321]

Ive got 30 gallon aquarium and at the moment i have about 4 inches of brilitantly white oolitic sand as substrate. Ive been looking at a few detrius eating inverts to help keep the sand clean. Most of these packs have cucumbers and starfish, but since my tank is small, will i be able to support these animals and will they have enough room to grow? If not could you recommend some good canidates to help keep my sand white?

thanks

 

[brettandlyndi]

I have two fighting conchs, and they keep the top of the sand bed really nice and clean. Nassarius snails are also great at keeping the top layer of the sandbed stirred up, and are neat to watch pop out of the sand when you feed the tank.

 

[idua]

I would stay away from cukes and stars. Stars will most likely starve to death in a system of this size and cukes may nuke the entire tank if they die. Hopefully someone else will chime in with recommendations

 

[The steven liu]

lots of nassaurius snails. Or you can get a small sand sifting goby.

 

[kmk2307]

I am fond of nassarius snails (though they are carrion eaters, not detritovores... you gotta feed em some meat) and certain sea cucumbers such as "tiger tails" and the common florida species. Typically the drab colored, sand-dwelling ones aren't toxic.

HTH,
Kevin

 

[dandydan]

I have a drab browny with white spinules cucumber, who will not stay on the sand, he's on the rocks on the glass anywhere but on the sand.
He was bought as a sand sifter.

 

[fishnut321]

as far as conchs go, which species is better in your opinion?

pacific conch

tongan fighting conch

i figure the pacific would be better for my tank since it has a max size of 3 inches, where the tongan is 4.

I was thinking about having two conchs, but will that cause problems?

thanks

 

[Letmegrow]

Conches will fast run out of food, and ultimately get too big.
They get bigger than 3" but they die of starvation so that's why they put that small of a size limit on them.

If you leave everything alone and let the natural detritavores populate and not have any predators of them, they will take better care of your tank and sand then any of the suggested creatures. Take some sand or rubble from someones sump and place it on your sand bed, you should get some better than perfect creatures. Also, increase the turbidity of your flow to keep detritus suspended.