Check out my sand bed cleaner!

[sminker]

Thought I would share this. My three foot cucumber. Sandbed is always perfectly clean thanks to guy. Thank god because my corals are so large I would never be able to do any type of manual cleaning. Had him for just over 2 1/2 years. He was only about 8" when I bought him.

 

[Dexters Reef]

Awesome! Has it ever harmed anything?

 

[Ptyochromis]

Awesome Holothuria hilla. He is a little over half way to being full grown . I keep a
H. floridana. They are so cool, dirty sand in clean sand balls out lol.

Has it ever eviscerated in the tank?

 

[toothman]

Nice tank!

 

[Dave & Monica]

Aren't those things toxic when they die, or am I thinking about something else?

 

[nanolover80]

HolyCrap! ... thats HUGE.

 

[sminker]

I've never seen him eviscerate. He is a very gentle with his tank mates. Besides pooping and making the goby clean out his home and covering up some of my acans sometimes. Other than that he's amazing.

 

[REEF SMAC]

I was liking mine too until he committed suicide into one of my Vortecs.

How about showing us the rest of that tank?

 

[Teddy03]

So these are not the ones when they die that the poision the tank. I need something. I put two sand sifting stars in my 175 and they aren't doing a very good job keeping the sand stired up. I haven't even seen them since the day I put them in the tank.

 

[REEF SMAC]

So these are not the ones when they die that the poision the tank. I need something. I put two sand sifting stars in my 175 and they aren't doing a very good job keeping the sand stired up. I haven't even seen them since the day I put them in the tank.

Mine didn't seem to harm anything else when it committed suicide.
Mine wasn't three feet long though either.

 

[sminker]

Here's a quick full tank shot.

 

[REEF SMAC]

Wow! Impressive tank. Thanks for sharing that too.

 

[Ptyochromis]

Here's a quick full tank shot.

Fantastic tank :inlove:, requesting equipment specs please

Aren't those things toxic when they die, or am I thinking about something else?

Them being dead isn't directly toxic as long as they are intact. It is their blood that is toxic (contains Holothurin, a highly water soluble toxin, toxic to fish)


They also have a neat defense against vertebrates where they eject a section of their intestine and/or release cuvierian tubules out of their anus. I'm quite sure a ton of holothurin comes out when they do this.

So these are not the ones when they die that the poision the tank. I need something. I put two sand sifting stars in my 175 and they aren't doing a very good job keeping the sand stired up. I haven't even seen them since the day I put them in the tank.

Those things are carnivorous
Try a Holothuria sp. if you have fine sand.

 

[Bello]

I'm curious, with this monster around, what's your sandbed maintenance like?

Do you vaccum at all? How thick is the sandbed?

 

[Dave & Monica]

Nice tank shot, and thanks for addressing my Q/ I've avoided them since I thought they were like those beautiful apples that destroy tanks when they die.

That is definitely the largest I've ever seen. Cool indeed.

 

[BKNYx43]

Is there anything smaller sea cucumbers that does the job? I think my wife will freak out just by looking at these pictures.

 

[sminker]

My sandbed maintenance is non-existent. The only thing I do is attempt to move the sand back once it starts gathering too much in one area. Which is a very difficult task, I can't even clean the glass is some areas. There's a bunch of different varieties. This is the only one of this type that I've seen n the stores around here.

Tank specs..
coralvue ballasts, ushio 20k bulbs, various ATI t5s, nw150 skimmer with sicce pump, and I dose 2 part with brs dosers. And its apex controlled. I do have a brs dual carbon and gfo reactor on the way. Not sure why I ordered it, had some extra crazy cash and.was ordering bulbs anyway.

 

[Teddy03]

Thank you, I will check it out

 

[mrbncal]

I had one of these in my tank for years . . . and then one day I had two. So thats kind of weird. They did the work of 5 gravel vacs! lol

 

[Ptyochromis]

Is there anything smaller sea cucumbers that does the job? I think my wife will freak out just by looking at these pictures.

Holothuria floridana, I have one that is roughly 6" (hard to tell, they change shape a lot). It is called a tiger tail, OP has an Atlantic tiger tail; you want the caribean/ gulf of mexico/ florida tiger tail. Fine sand is a necessity, they ingest it and poop out clean sand pellets. I get cyano on my bed right before lights out and it is gone by morning . Just be sure to weigh the benefit against the risk and make sure you can maintain adequate detritus accumulation in the sand bed (can be equated with the availability of food to a mandarin dragonette). The purchase of one should not be taken lightly.

Just stay away from sea apples, they are obligate filter feeders and are considerably more toxic than these guys.