Question About Starfish In Reef Tanks

[Compguy]

Hello all,

I was wondering if someone can help me out, I recently pulled out my Sand Sifting Star from my 55G tank because I am trying to start up a DSB, so I placed it into my refugium, but I already have a sand bed in my refugium and am worried that the starfish is going to ruin it, do the sand sifting starfish eat the worms and what not that live in the sand bed? I also have a Pincusion Urchin in the main tank that I think I should get rid of, they are kind of clumsy and I think they eat Coraline algae which is probably why I am having problems growing it.

I also had a question about snails in a refugium, does anybody keep snails in their refugium, right now I have some Nassarius snails, and some others, I think the Nassarius snails are probably ok to keep in their but the others I should probably take out, or maybe take out all of them, I'm not to sure, it basically has a 3" sand bed and a big ball of Cheato, I did have some live rock in there, but pulled the live rock out of the refugium to make more room for the Cheato, so I am thinking I should probably take all the snails out and put them in the main tank.

Any help is appreciated, thanks ahead of time :rollface:

 

[Javeo]

Sand sifters eat small organisms in the sand, yes. so not so good for a dsb, and rchcontrary to the whole point of having a refugium. Urchns eat all kinds of algae but seem to prefer coraline, mine keeps the glass clear of it, but i have too much anyway so i dont care. Id take all the snails out of the refugium and leave all the available food to go towards plankton production, which will only benefit your main aquaruim.

 

[Compguy]

Great, thanks, thats kind of what I was thinking but wasn't sure what I should do.