clean sandbed

[TripleT]

I'm no scientist, and I am not that experienced with this whole reef thing. However, I've had two tanks now both of which had diamond head gobies in it and after observing them and observing the tanks I find it highly unlikely that they "kill" the sand bed. The reason I say this is that the sand beds of both my previous aquarium and my current aquarium contained a lot of worms and and little critters, additionally when I watch the little bugger eat there are very large grains of sand that go through his mouth and come out below his gills, it seems unlikely to me that the filter in that fishes gills is efficient enough to completely clean out the sand that he's sifting through. Maybe it's because my gobies have been small, and I most certainly could be wrong but it just seems a bit unlikely to me.

Lots of critters also live in the sand and rock. So if you've got lots of rock, the sand will be repopulated to some degree from your rock.

If I shine a light into my rock any time of day, I see pods scurrying around like crazy. The more nook/crannies/holes, the more pods!

 

[ezhoops]

I'm no scientist, and I am not that experienced with this whole reef thing. However, I've had two tanks now both of which had diamond head gobies in it and after observing them and observing the tanks I find it highly unlikely that they "kill" the sand bed. The reason I say this is that the sand beds of both my previous aquarium and my current aquarium contained a lot of worms and and little critters, additionally when I watch the little bugger eat there are very large grains of sand that go through his mouth and come out below his gills, it seems unlikely to me that the filter in that fishes gills is efficient enough to completely clean out the sand that he's sifting through. Maybe it's because my gobies have been small, and I most certainly could be wrong but it just seems a bit unlikely to me.

I am by no means an expert but I can definetly tell you that these creatures are not beneficial to your sand bed creatures. Not to mention I can back it up with scientific sources, of course if your tank is over-populated and your goby is small, sure they can exist and not eat everything. Everyone's experiences are different.

 

[floydie83]

I got a conch today. He's just sitting in the sandbed with his goofy eyes poked out. There must be some good stuff in there because he's barely moved all day.

My conch will go days at a time without moving and then go crazy for a week.

 

[mallorieGgator]

So, I've had my conch for about a week now and he doesn't do that great of a job. lol. Just kinda cruises the top of the sand and uses his "trunk" to eat things. I guess he does move the sand around a little. Maybe adding some nassarius will help.

 

[ezhoops]

Conchs need a large foot print of open sand without any edges nearby, you would need a very large tank with an open sand bed to really support a conch long term