Mandarin Goby compatible Sandbed cleanup crew or cleaner?

[Zpmada]

Hi all,

I have some GHA on my sandbed and need a sandbed cleaner that won't impact a mandarin dragonet's food supply. From what I read, I need to stay away from starfish as they will exhaust the sandbed of beneficial organisms.

What is the best sandbed cleaner for a 75 gallon tank with a shallow sandbed? The sand is CaribSea Arag-Alive Fiji Pink Aquariam Sand. I would ultimately like to have a mandarin dragonette so I am trying to setup the tank around that one fish. We have about 110lbs of live rock and I've been seeding it with Tisbe pods. We also have chaeto in a 20 gallon long sump and marinepure porous rock in the sump.

I had 2 Mexican turbo snails that did a great job cleaning the rock and sandbed, but they kept knocking off frags so I gave them away. After I removed them, green hair algae appeared on the rockwork and sandbed.

I picked up a bicolor blenny that is cleaning the rocks nicely and they are herbivores so I imagine that they don't compete with a dragonet for food. Now I need to address the sandbed. What would be good for the sand? One of the smaller fighting conch? Or will they climb on the rocks and knock things over like mexican turbo snails?

Thank you!

 

[Michael Hoaster]

Hair algae is one of the favorite foods of the Zebrasoma Tangs, like the Yellow or Scopas. And yes, a fighting conch is a good sand bed algae eater. They can get onto lower rocks, so they might rarely knock something off.

You are correct that sand-sifting sea stars (and fish) should be avoided. I'd also avoid any wrasses, as they are very prolific hunters of pods. Consider adding some of the coarse, crushed coral gravel on top of your fine sand. It provides refuge for the pods to feed and breed.

In a sense, your tank set up for mandarins, should be set up for pods, since you want them to reproduce faster than they get eaten. Pods eat algae and also use it for refuge, so you should have some. The trick is to eliminate the ugly stuff and replace it with something that you like, like any of your favorite macro algae.

 

[Sk8r]

fighting conch stays under the sand most of the time: death on plate corals because of its 'spur', but otherwise a good citizen.