Sand Too Fine?

I was wondering if my sand was too fine. I can't use a syphon to get the junk off because the debris weighs more than the sand. I can't use the powerheads to blow the junk around for the same reason. I end up with a clean acrylic bottom and piles of debris.

I have nessarius snales and small hermit crabs but they dont do a great job. I tried getting a diamond goby but he was found under a pile of my nessarius snales a few days later. I picked up a sand sifting star and he has never once dug down to bury him self. After a couple days he started loosing legs and I bet when I get home he will be dead.

I think the issue with the sea star was caused by Mg levels being too hi. I'll be changing water this weekend to lower it down but now it is at 1700ish.

 

narcissus snails eat meat, they do nothing more then hunt in the sand, eat left over fish food, and turn a very small amount of sand over.

a sand shifting star will hunt what ever creatures are in your sand, they also need atleast a 70 gallon tank with sand or they starve to death. unless you feed it to suplement its diet, but then its not really helping the detritus problem. probably makes it worse by eating all the creatures in the sand.

i would say the goby makes it worse for the same reason.

the animals you mentioned will help keep the inside of you bed cleaner by turning the sand over but i dont think they eat much detritus

 

i would think a conch or reef safe bristleworms may be better scavengers.

 

If you dont mind poping noises check into some pistol shrimp. But if you dont want them i think you could just stir the sand yourself every now and then.

 

I dont mind the noise but I think my wife would. I would mind the loss of my inverts in the tank. Dont pistol shrimp eat crabs and shrimp?

 

Once I got a large hermit crab, all my substrate got stirred up and he either ate the poop or shuffled by it enough for it to disintegrate into the water and get sucked into the skimmer.