sand bed clean up
- Thread starter WETFISH
- Start date
reef_doug
Premium Member
I have a 180g with 1-2mm arga oolite. My diamond watchman goby is very good at keeping the bed clean. Get the largest one you can find, I purchased him at Vivid Aquariums about 7 wks ago.
I also have 15 true nassarius snails purchased from Jeffs Exotic in Carson. IMO they do very little for the sand bed except stir it up.
Red Fire shrimp and cleaner shrimp are good good at picking up left over food.
I've heard a fighting Conch are very good, but don't have one yet.
Best
Doug
(grew up in Redondo)
I also have 15 true nassarius snails purchased from Jeffs Exotic in Carson. IMO they do very little for the sand bed except stir it up.
Red Fire shrimp and cleaner shrimp are good good at picking up left over food.
I've heard a fighting Conch are very good, but don't have one yet.
Best
Doug
(grew up in Redondo)
JeffersonReef
New member
The nas-snails actually seem to do a GREAT job in my 125g. In addition to just "stirring" the sand, they also feed on detritus and decaying organics 24/7. That means that all the more less waste remains in ur sandbed to later become trates. I would buy 1 of these snails for every 5g of tank capacity.
I also have 2 brittle stars. They dont come out till the lights are off, and they dont even come out when I feed the fish, etc. This being the case... they are great scavengers. I used to have an army of scarlet hermits and electric blue hermits, and they were great for diatoms and algae... but they also had a taste for my margarita and turbo snails.. so I got rid of all the scralet/ red leg hermits, and alot of the blue hermits. Ive never heard of the website you mentioned... but I really dont like ordering these types of janitors on line. It seems like alot of the websites (except for ones like liveaquaria, exoticfish, reefhotpost, vividaquariums, etc) mis-classify alot of the snails and crabs... so you dont get what you bargained on. Anyway, just MHO... HTH!!
-Tony
waterman78
Active member
WETFISH: I never purchased any of the products from IPSF.COM...however, I too have ran across there's advertising. And personally, I found better deals at our local stores. For instance, Jeff's Exotic Fish is a great choice for a tune-up/clean up crew. (Sea cucmbers, snails, starfish, and sand sifting fish). IMO for the time and $$$ you could have better results - creating your own package and save a bundle. Vivid Aquarium (Canoga, CA SF Valley) has a sale on Astrea snails 10 for $8.99...and at Jeff's you can find some great deals on Sea Cucumbers and snails. I hope this helps.
Geogal17
Premium Member
I like the critters from IPSF, I've ordered the 9 for $99 a few times and was very happy, I got a few bristle worms that now took over the tank LOL as well as alot of nice worms for the sandbed that have continued to thrive. I also like their pod kit, I used it to start off a refugium, at one point I had so many mini brittle stars and pods I was able to bag some up with extra cheato to give away.
The snails they sell are nice and small and lay eggs on the glass that hatch to mini snails, its alot of fun to watch. So far they have done good job providing exactly what they promise to, Ive even had a few "freebies" like a xenia frag or a neon green leather frag pop up attacked to the rubble in their sand.
Maybe prices are better at local stores but I was pleased to find very hardy little clean up critters that continued to reproduce in my tank. They arrived healthy and thrived
. Weve always left them good feedback, it even showed up on their site for awhile.
another site that has some nice prices on clean up critters Ive always had good experience with is www.reeftopia.com
edit: I almost forgot, the coral heaven food they sell on ipsf.com as an option of their package is nice too, i would mix a pinch with cyclopseeze and selcon and turkey baste it on my zoos and shrooms, they really seemed to like it.
The snails they sell are nice and small and lay eggs on the glass that hatch to mini snails, its alot of fun to watch. So far they have done good job providing exactly what they promise to, Ive even had a few "freebies" like a xenia frag or a neon green leather frag pop up attacked to the rubble in their sand.
Maybe prices are better at local stores but I was pleased to find very hardy little clean up critters that continued to reproduce in my tank. They arrived healthy and thrived
. Weve always left them good feedback, it even showed up on their site for awhile. another site that has some nice prices on clean up critters Ive always had good experience with is www.reeftopia.com
edit: I almost forgot, the coral heaven food they sell on ipsf.com as an option of their package is nice too, i would mix a pinch with cyclopseeze and selcon and turkey baste it on my zoos and shrooms, they really seemed to like it.
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