TBS sand....

[lionbacker54]

i'll chime in. i think hermits are great additions to a tank. they are for the most part very peaceful, and richard sends plenty of empty snail shells so they won't attack each other or snails for the shells. i am also going to agree with the other poster that it is hard to believe that the cukes can catch anything even slightly mobile. the only way you would know these things even move is that the next day they are in a different position. one thing you definitely want to stay away from is the sand-sifting sea star. these are known to feed on and deplete the beneficial microfauna in the sand. richard does not send these as part of the CUC.

 

[dwculp]

1. The sand you get from Richard is absolutely, positively the livest live sand you can get! I would follow Richards advice and setup your sand bed to be about 1.25" - 2.0". The amount of life in the sand is INCREDIBLE. I still miss staring into the sand and seeing all the worms, mini-starfish and pods living and crawling around.

2. Hermits can and will kill snails. Ive seen tiny blue-legged hermits pull an astrea snail out of its shell and then hop in! However, I think the benefits of small blue leg hermits outweigh the negatives. In addition, you can buy empty shells for your hermits and this helps cut down on the snail killing.

3. I am not sure I would lay down a fine arogonite and put the TBS sand on top. What happens over time is that the sands tend to mix and it does not look good at all.