Who's the best clean up crew for the sand?

[Kimdive]

My sand is filthy! When ever I clean the back glass of the tank, the conches, sea urchin and snails can't keep up. My live rock is muck free though

Who's the best for the sand?

 

[honda70kid]

i would get a sand sifter..
you just have to be careful because they eat a lot of things out of your sand bed.

 

[Dizzle63]

Which tank are you having problems with? Cucumbers would get my vote. Sandsifting stars would eat everything beneficial and then starve. Gobies would eat everything beneficial and cover coral.

 

[Koshmar]

Cucumber. I have a sand sifting star and it doesn't do anything for cleaning the sand. It's not worth it, trust me, I just like it because it's crazy and really clumsy. Fun to watch them get back up when they have been flipped over but that's about the extent of their usefulness. Nassarius snails do a little bit by burrowing and eating left over food.

 

[Kimdive]

I'm a bit worried though about the death of cucumbers!

 

[o0xerog0o]

My 30 gallon got so bad that a couple days ago I took every coral and piece of rock out of it, and skimmed the top 1/8" of sand off the top to throw away... I had considered a sand sifting star, but heard about them eating the good stuff as well as the bad, and then starving.

I did by a hairy sea hare thinking he would solve the problem, but he only wants to eat algae from the rocks and glass, nothing at all from the sand. If it ever gets really bad in my tank again, maybe a cucumber would be my best bet.

 

[Sr5_Reef]

I really like gobies.
Dizzle63- you said gobies eat everything beneficial? my goby only eats like the top 1/8th of the sand.... so plenty of life left underneath.
tiger cucumbers are also great. I would go with a goby.

 

[Guygettnby]

i also would recomend a cucumber for cleaning your substrate. gobies can be a pain sometimes depending on wich species you end up getting. but a goby and pistol shrimp combo is always fun to watch if you dont mind replacing a snail/hermit every once in awhile.

 

[kel2682]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=14607928#post14607928 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Kimdive
I'm a bit worried though about the death of cucumbers!

Get an atlantic not poisonous

 

[zackdastack]

fo sho

 

[Kimdive]

Atlantic, nice idea
What's fo sho, zackdastack?

 

[JEFFR259]

Diamond Goby.