sand cleaner

[spoiledberners]

I have a 90 G with SPS and LPS corals. I am looking for a cleaner for detritus on my sand bed. I have several nassarius but all they do is bury themselves in the sand. Have a yellow watchman goby but stays in his own cave with pistol shrimp. Have a starry blenny but can't really do the job.

I am looking for an invert that will:

1. stay on the sand bed
2. Hopefully will not crawl on the rocks and corals.

Any suggestions:

1. How about sand sifting cucumbers? What do you think?
2. Anything else?

I appreciate any informations, suggestions and recommendations. :wave:

 

[fox2589]

check into fighting conches..i have one in my 37 gallon and he keeps it pretty aerated and never leaves the sand bed..-drew

 

[fox2589]

o the only bad thing with cucumbers when theres not enough food(which will probably happen unless in a huge system) they die quickly..or so i have heard..-drew

 

[badsmitty]

sand sifting cucumbers are good, but will climb on the rocks,I like the black 1's but the yellow are moree common , caution with powerheads & cucumbers
sand stars , bury themselves in the sand, you only see them when there not getting enough food from the sand

 

[gig]

initially thought a "medusa worm", but they are similar to a cucumber and could nuke your tank!

 

[spoiledberners]

oh boy :crazy1: I guess no cucumber then. I will definitely look into the fighting conches and do more research. Thanks for the advice Drew.

Anyone else

 

[spoiledberners]

thanks badsmitty, gig and Drew. Appreciate all the info :bounce1:

 

[spoofer]

naussarius snails, tonga naussarius snails- about 1-2 per gallon..they'll keep the sand loose and moving

 

[spoiledberners]

Or do I just need to place a powerhead lower close to the sand so it will aerate? Watcha guys think? :idea:

 

[spoiledberners]

I have 10 nassarius snails in there, somewhere

 

[spoofer]

well flow definatley matters... i would adjust the flow pattern, but naussarius are hearty and do a good job keeping the sand from clumping and allowing any waste to build up...

 

[spoofer]

ok cool, well i'd work on the flow then and see what happens- sand sifting stars- cucumbers - they tend not to live long... IME

 

[Jeff]

Cucumbers work great and dont nuke tanks. I have 3 of them that are getting huge. Sand sifting starfish and nassarius snails work great also, you just dont see any of these guys during the day that much.

 

[spoiledberners]

okay spoof, if I get my arithmetic right, I should have atleast 45 nassarius snails for a 90 gal?

Is that right?

 

[spoiledberners]

but will they bother your corals? climb rocks? etc

 

[spoiledberners]

Jeff, you're absolutely right you don't see them during the day. Tell that to my yellow watchman goby and pistol shrimp hiding in their makeshift cave. Who knows what is going on inside the cave. Maybe I will have a baby watchman shrimp.

 

[spoofer]

naussarius snails generally don't climb more than a inch or two into the rock IF they do climb at all- they only really come up during feeding time....like zombies they errupt from the ground and zoom all over looking for food.....

The general recommendation by most web-sites for stocking naussarius is 1-2 per gallon i have a 120 and have about 40 some?? so i'm under but i feel like it's plenty

 

[spoiledberners]

sorry to confuse you spoof, I was actually asking the question to jeff since he said he has three

 

[Jeff]

Who knows what is going on inside the cave. Maybe I will have a baby watchman shrimp.

:lol:

 

[Jeff]

I have 3 cucumbers (2 black and 1 yellow), dozens of nassarius snails, and used to have a sand sifting starfish. They all tend to chill during the day and come out at night. I really dont worry about inverts irritating the corals. I have a bunch of asterina and hermits that crawl around and clean the place up which is what I bought them for. I just got a huge order from Reefs2go.com. The prices there are really low and they ran a special last week that was too good to pass up.