What will clean my sand.

[sagwala]

What will best clean the detritus from my sand. I have a Sea Hare that is doing a great job with the hair algae, 10ish Reg legged hermits, 10ish small turbo's, 6 Nasarius and have just added a Blue cheek Goby. Am i right in saying that the nasarius will eat detritus but the others dont. What would you recomend i add to help. Thanks. 40g tank and was told by my lfs that a sand sifting sea star would need a bigger tank???? Is that right.

Also what should i feed my Goby to suplement whats in the sand.

Cheers

 

[Snowboarda42]

get a conch. they'll help stir it up.

 

[Lpabsolute]

Conch/Sand Shiffing Star

 

[TarheelFrag]

Dragon Gobies. Mine works non stop cleaning my sand bed.

 

[alexb518]

Sea Cucumbers. They leave cleaned pellets behind as they move about

 

[BradsOcean]

diamond goby

 

[Randall_James]

I am not a fan of the Conchs or the SS stars, both are not really good tank critters IMO... Gobys work well but can sure stir up a mess (substrate living corals can get buried pretty quickly)

IME cucumbers seem to do a great job of keeping the substrate cleaned and they do not stir up a ton of silt like my Goby's have.

there are stories of cukes poisoning tanks but I think those may be blown way out of proportion

 

[OldSchoolNewbie]

Question, I keep seeing reference to Sea Hares, what are they and where do (did) you get them ???

 

[Randall_James]

they are a type of sea slug, I believe they use them to eat hair algae?

 

[Gdevine]

Orange spotted Goby - Great fish and GREAT utility player and very cool with his other tank mates. Your sand will look great and be provided with a lot of oxygen to boot!

 

[sagwala]

Thanks everyone, I have a yellow headed goby or a blue cheek goby as the lfs called it, its doing a great job, but as you say randall he is sure making a mess. My rocks are covered in sand!!! I read that they dont like to be on thier own, is that right, should i get a male/female to join it when i figure out if mine is male/female, but will there be anough food for them both? Also will the sand on the rocks be a problem when i start adding coral?

Thanks!!!!

 

[doowain9999]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=9512936#post9512936 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Wampas
Dragon Gobies. Mine works non stop cleaning my sand bed.

I second this.

 

[clevername]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=9512936#post9512936 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Wampas
Dragon Gobies. Mine works non stop cleaning my sand bed.

Second this also

Sandsifting stars will NOT live in a small system (125 or below)