BROTHERSPIZZERIA
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What is some of the best cleaners to use for sand sifting? What type? Etc. Snails, starfish, ???
whats best to sift sand??
- Thread starter BROTHERSPIZZERIA
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he sifts the sand well ,also can try a sand sifter starBROTHERSPIZZERIA
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What type of gobie and can you have more than 1?
BROTHERSPIZZERIA
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150 long 40 gallon sump
marlinman86
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You could just use a trusty dowel rod and stir it urself and let the skimmer do its job, especially if you run gfo or carbon. The lazy way is a star and a bunch of nessarius lol
BROTHERSPIZZERIA
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Why especially if you run gfo or carbon?? Because I will be very soon. Please educate.
Guygettnby
Well-known member
Guygettnby
Well-known member
There are a lot of great fish and inverts who will help keep your sand clean. Some are hard to keep, some are easy and then there are some you just need to stay away from. Let me ask you a few questions here.
How old is your tank?
How deep is your sand bed?
What kind of substrate are you using?
How much live rock is in the tank?
What kind of tanks this? Reef? Fowlr?
What clean up crew you plan to keep in your tank will all depend on your setup and what other live stock you plan to keep in the tank.
Sand sifting stars should be left in te ocean as they will starve in the home aquarium. Figured I would throw that out there.
Scooter blennies are another thing all together. They are hard to keep alive and best left in the ocean or to the more experienced hobbiest. They do nothing for your substrate at all any ways. They have a very strict diet of pods and some except brine, mysis, reef plankton or cyclopeeze. But they need to eat all the time. Just look up dragonets and you will see.
But most the other stuff in this thread will work. But I also suggest cucumbers if this will not be an aggressive tank. They do a great job cleaning and filtering the sand. Look into these and research. I have had one or more in almost every tank. Have owned thru the years.
Just make sure to read and research before you add anything to your tank. Don't just take the advice of some people online for everything.
How old is your tank?
How deep is your sand bed?
What kind of substrate are you using?
How much live rock is in the tank?
What kind of tanks this? Reef? Fowlr?
What clean up crew you plan to keep in your tank will all depend on your setup and what other live stock you plan to keep in the tank.
Sand sifting stars should be left in te ocean as they will starve in the home aquarium. Figured I would throw that out there.
Scooter blennies are another thing all together. They are hard to keep alive and best left in the ocean or to the more experienced hobbiest. They do nothing for your substrate at all any ways. They have a very strict diet of pods and some except brine, mysis, reef plankton or cyclopeeze. But they need to eat all the time. Just look up dragonets and you will see.
But most the other stuff in this thread will work. But I also suggest cucumbers if this will not be an aggressive tank. They do a great job cleaning and filtering the sand. Look into these and research. I have had one or more in almost every tank. Have owned thru the years.
Just make sure to read and research before you add anything to your tank. Don't just take the advice of some people online for everything.
can you mix and match? like say 4 nassarius and 2 fighting conch for my 210 or would they kill each other?
Ive got about 12 nassarius in my 120 and often think i need more.
BROTHERSPIZZERIA
New member
3 to 4 inch deep black sand. 150 pounds of live rock.tank up over a year but I just moved it all to a new 150 gallon tank. I kept all the water and live rock from the 125 gallon. But i did replace all the substrate. Went from crushed coral to black sand.
it is a reef tank. I went with new setup because i added a 4 foot custom sump, much better skimmer, gfo , nitrate, and carbon reactor and a chiller. So a way better setup than what I had.
Guygettnby
Well-known member
ok, so with all new substrate there is little to no food for most inverts that feed on the all the stuff living in the sand. hold off on anything like a sand sifting goby or a cucumber until the sand is better established. fighting conchs would work out great for you as well. but until your substrate is alittle more established you will starve some things.
tonga (wich are basicaly a large nessarius snail) and nessarius snails eat left over food, dying and decaying fish or basically anything detritus.
cerith snails are also a good one. but up to date the best things i have found to work on my tanks were cucumbers, fighting or a few other forms of small conchs, tonga/nessarius snails, and different species of gobies or goby/pistol shrimp combo. there are other ways out ther of course but that is just my personal favorites.
if you feel that you do not have enough algea in your tank to support different kinds of inverts or fish you can always get some nori to help out. i do that about once every 2-3 days mostly for my tang, but everything gets a taste. like my crabs and snails finish off what my tang does not.
now please remember this. with a substrate that deep after awhile you do not want to mix it up like mentioned before. you will unleash some pretty nasty stuff in your tank that could kill everything.
BROTHERSPIZZERIA
New member
Thanks for the advice
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