sandsifters

i have a goby thats sifts the sand but makes a mess and covers my corals. i have fine to med grain sand at the moment. im going to be moving here in a few weeks. i have a 2" sand bed and plan on going to a 4" bed. i plan on putting a couple of plants in it so i figured that help. i saw on youtube for a deep sand bed you want sugar size grain so im going to buy some of that to add and get rid of the goby. i was wondering what i could have in my tank to sift the sand besides the snails that live in the sand.

 

sand sifting stars are pretty popular to mix up a DSB like you want!! otherwise i find the snails to be sufficient if you have enough of them, there constantly moving around and mixing up my sand. ive also been seeing more horseshoe crabs but im not to fond of them b/c ive read the life span isnt the greatest and they eat your pods

 

Unless you have a large open sandbed, the SS stars will likely slowly starve, as they (like the sifter goby) deplete the substrate of beneficial micofauna.

A 4" sandbed is considered a DSB and really shouldn't be fooled with too much, as there are compunds in the lower anoxic layers (such as H2S) that you definitely don't want in your water column. However, a few Nassarius snails and a handful of Ceriths will keep the upper layers aerated.

HTH

 

yea i have a 55g DT w/ nass snails all over the place and making babies and i do have a lot of those other snails but they are pretty small.

 

There are different species of Nasarrius snail~some quit large

 

I would stay away from the sand sifting star since as already stated it takes a large area to keep them fed. They will slowly starve. the super tongan nassarius snails are one of the larger nass snails and do a pretty good job of aerating the sand.

 

i beilieve thats what i have atm.